


A Research Endeavour (We Can Write The Conclusion Together)

by Shadowy_Dumbo_Octopus



Series: And They Were Lab Partners [4]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: A lot of cheesy science talk, Because we deserve fluff after S4, But only because bottoming with his wings there would be uncomfortable, Communication, Cuddling, Cunnilingus, Domestic Fluff, Dorks in Love, Dryl's wedding customs, Entrapta spills some tea, Established Relationship, F/M, First Time, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Friendship, Gentle Sex, Hordak is a soft bastard, I kinda wrote myself into a corner there sorry, Loss of Virginity, Marriage Proposal, Minor Original Character(s), Monologue, My teeth are disintegrating and I'm the author, Past Abuse, References to the mythology of Hordak's species, Science, Scorpia finally has a friend who appreciates her, Service Top Hordak, So much healthy communication, They're both SO EXCITED FOR THIS, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Vaginal Sex, Wedding Fluff, Wedding Night, Wedding Planning, Weddings, Which I made up, Why is there so much worldbuilding in my fics, Worldbuilding, about fucking time, implied PTSD, sPAAAACE, scorpia is a good friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:04:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 34,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21835828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowy_Dumbo_Octopus/pseuds/Shadowy_Dumbo_Octopus
Summary: Hordak proposes a new experiment.Title taken from "The Science Love Song" by AsapSCIENCE.Tags and the rating will change as the story progresses.
Relationships: Entrapta & Scorpia (She-Ra), Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Series: And They Were Lab Partners [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1548472
Comments: 140
Kudos: 209





	1. Chapter 1

“Hey, lab partner?”

Hordak’s head shot up as he quickly shoved his newest project into a drawer, covering it with a layer of junk, and instead pulling up a half-finished circuit board. “What is it?”

There was the sound of wheels rolling as Entrapta pushed herself away from her desk, her chair zooming across the workshop all the way to his workspace.

“Have you seen my four-inch hex driver?” she asked, scratching her head in puzzlement. “I cannot find it anywhere and I need it to finish calibrating Emily’s legs.”

The robot beeped affirmatively from the other side of the room. Entrapta has built her a new, improved body, but several parts of it were still in need of an adjustment. Not that she minded – in fact, Emily rather liked the attention as much as a robot could like things.

“Four-inch hex driver?” he repeated, rubbing his chin in thought. “Violet handle, yes?”

“Mhm.”

“No, I’m afraid I have no idea where it might me. Shall I lend you mine until you find it?”

She nodded, smiling gratefully when he pulled up his toolbox and started rummaging through it, setting aside various tools with both black and purple handles – they had colour-coded them to avoid mixing them up, but neither of them paid it too much attention as of late.

“You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if _I_ had it.”

Entrapta reached into the toolbox and picked up her three socket wrench, pondering it casually - Hordak’s was somewhere in her room; she needed it to fix her desk lamp and hasn’t gotten around to giving it back yet.

Back in the Fright Zone, they didn’t share anything other than information. Hordak had his own tools, Entrapta had hers, and that was that. He used to be rather possessive of his stuff, in fact, which she completely understood and thus only borrowed anything when he wasn’t around.

Now, everything they did was so… domestic could be a word for it, perhaps. They borrowed each other’s tools without asking, addressed each other more casually than in any of her earlier recordings, and well, smooched from time to time. That was a big change, though not an unwelcome one; Entrapta enjoyed the way her heart fluttered at the kisses like a hyperactive butterfly. Or a bat. Or a butterbat. Butterbats still sounded like a type of cookie, perhaps with black icing and little candy fangs. She would have to have a word with the kitchen staff about making a few prototypes.

A flicker of movement pulled her back to reality; Hordak finally located his hex driver and handed it to her. “Here you go.”

“Thanks!” she accepted it and rolled back to her work station to work on Emily, humming merrily.

Hordak watched her carefully from the corner of his eye for a moment or two to make sure that she was sufficiently enveloped in her work, and sighed in relief. The circuit board went away, replaced by a secret project he didn’t want his lab partner to become aware of for the time being. His wings helped considerably, obscuring the view of his workbench if he positioned them right. Of course, he didn’t want to make it look like he was hiding something from Entrapta – that would have piqued her curiosity, making secrecy pretty much impossible.

He smiled to himself, manoeuvring the delicate tools to recreate the sigils he had memorised beforehand. He and Entrapta have known each other for nearly two years now, and officially been together for thirteen months. Ever since she came into his life back at the Fright Zone, his life was flipped on its head, spun around, endangered once or twice, and enriched in other incredible ways that left him looking back at his Entrapta-less memories and finding them dull and miserable, if undeniably quieter and with a lower content of migraines.

_Oh starlight,_ he sighed as he worked. Long ago, before everything, he would’ve called her perfect. Now, though, he knew better; she wasn’t perfect, couldn’t be perfect - imperfections were beautiful and she was the most beautiful being he knew, but for the life of him he couldn’t find anything flawed about the violet-haired Princess.

Wait, he paused, setting the tools down with a frown as a thought struck him. Why was she still a Princess, anyway? According to his research into Etherian monarchy, a Princess became a Queen after exceeding the age dictated by her kingdom (usually 16-24) if there was no Queen already on the throne. Since Entrapta was 28 years old and the royal age dictated by Dryl’s tradition was 21, there was no reason why she, being the only royalty in the kingdom, shouldn’t be legally addressed as a Queen.

Truly, his mind could wander in the strangest of directions.

“Starlight?” he called out, putting away his project once again. “May I ask you something?”

“If you don’t ask, you won’t find out,” she replied, not looking up from tightening a screw in Emily’s leg, the mask he made her lowered over her face. Seeing his gift worn and utilised made something warm stir in his chest, and he couldn’t help but smile just a little.

He got up from his desk and approached the two of them, wincing slightly at a stabbing pain in his left shoulder. His defect (_condition,_ he reminded himself – there was nothing wrong with him) hasn’t been as much of a nuisance as of late since he finally found painkillers that didn’t make him drowsy, but it still liked to act up around the scars he had sustained while on Beast Island.

“I acknowledge that this question could come across as strange and unprompted,” he began, “but why are you still a Princess?”

Entrapta looked up at him, lifting her mask to reveal a puzzled frown. “What?”

Oh wait, that sounded wrong. He cleared his throat awkwardly.

“I mean, you are of legal age to be a Queen, and I was wondering…”

“Oooooooohhhhhhhh!!!!” she realised, setting the hex driver down and lifting herself on her hair. “I getcha, I getcha. According to Dryl’s tradition, a Princess can upgrade to a Queen once she either marries or produces a spawn. Er, offspring. Infant. Gremlin. Child. You know.” She waved her hand vaguely. “I mean, she would still have to be of the legal age, but she cannot become a Queen unless she does either of these things.”

Hordak nodded, waiting silently for her to continue speaking.

“I think that it’s a weird rule; I mean, why is marriage such a big thing?” Entrapta shrugged. “Yeah, it’d be nice to have a spouse and stuff, and weddings are an excellent setting for social experiments…”

“Have you ever considered it, yourself?”

She paused, expression unreadable, then flipped the mask over her face. “Who, me? No.” She turned away. “I mean, I’ve always been more invested in science than forming and maintaining interpersonal relationships.” A strand of her hair began to wrap and unwrap itself around her finger. “Until you, I mean, and some days I still get scared that you will eventually abandon me. Which I know you won’t!” she added, noticing that he was about to interject. “I just… you know…” Another shrug. “Never really found a place for it in my life.”

“I see,” Hordak nodded once more. “That is completely understandable; I had attended several weddings back in the day.” A shadow passed over his face, almost imperceptible. “Horde Prime had… a number of spouses over the centuries. A harem, I think is the Etherian word for it; when one of his wives lost her charm or passed away due to…” He paused, taking a deep breath, “when she passed away, he would immediately begin looking for a new one to fill in the void. I am aware that Etherian wedding customs are different, but I still find the idea uncomfortable.”

To his surprise, Entrapta breathed a sigh of relief, raising her mask to smile at him. “That is okay. I’m glad that you feel the same; I was half expecting you to propose to me or something.”

He laughed, shaking his head. “No, that was far from my intent, I promise.”

Emily let out a low bloop, something neither of her parents fortunately registered as disappointment.

“I mean, not that you’re not husband material,” Entrapta picked up the hex driver and began to fiddle with it. “In fact, if I were to ever conduct that particular experiment with anyone, I’d choose you, but…”

“Not yet?” he supplied.

“Not yet,” she beamed. “Maybe once I finally warm up to dresses.”

“You are the last person I could see in a dress.”

She laughed, the sound washing over him in a wave of warm tingles. “Does that mean that _you_ would be wearing one?”

He folded his arms over his chest, one eyebrow raised playfully. “Certainly, and I would wear it a thousand times better than you.”

“Now I’m half tempted to propose to you just to see you in a wedding gown.”

“As long as it isn’t white.”

“Pastel purple?”

“Black.”

She pouted. “You wear black all the time! I want to see you in something else.”

Hordak pretended to consider the matter, struggling to keep a smile off his lips. “Very well, but only if you wear something that isn’t purple.”

“You drive a hard bargain, lab partner,” Entrapta folded her arms, lifting herself a little higher. “Fine. Meet me in the main hall in fifteen minutes in a gown.”

“You have yourself a deal, then, my Queen,” he nodded, proceeding to shake her hand officially before the two returned to their desks to resume their work in comfortable silence, neither touching the matter again…

…until a year later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: this isn't a #sike chapter. The writing just took me in a completely different direction than I originally anticipated. It seems that it's important to discuss marriage beforehand not only with your s/o, but also with the characters you're writing a fic about. I don't mind, though, because this opens a better path than the one I original had in mind for the first two chapters.
> 
> Lo and behold, fanfiction can be an unpredictable adventure for both the reader and the author!


	2. Chapter 2

Entrapta sighed, sitting on the steps on Crypto Castle’s main hall. Sunlight was streaming through the giant stained glass window, bathing the inside in a soft, purple light. It was depicting the figures of the first Queens of Dryl: Mechanika and Akasha, their hands intertwined, surrounded by delicate clockwork precisely rendered in glass. It was Mechanika’s bloodline that carried the violet hair gene, passed down from mother to daughter. Entrapta looked at her own hair, the same shade of violet as that of her great-great-great-etc-etc-grandmother. She seemed happy, she thought, standing there before the altar and joined for life with the one she loved by the bond of marriage.

It wasn’t something she gave much thought, at least up until recently. Previously, the concept of marriage was used for convenience; joining two bloodlines for mutual benefit, be it trade, war, or politics. Then, as the times changed and marriages for love became more commonplace (like the one between King Micah and Queen Angella), the perception of the ritual shifted, making it appear more attractive, though Entrapta personally saw it as a mere formality to drive home the fact that yes, these two people were planning to stay together until the rest of their lives. Is everyone aware of this already or should we throw an even bigger, louder and more suffocating party than this?

She had attended the wedding of Netossa and Spinerella a couple of years back, seeing in it potential for a social experiment. While she did gather a lot of interesting data on the attending Princesses (like Princess Mermista being caught snogging that silly pirate in the supply closet), the affair itself seemed more boring than watching paint dry. She used to think that it just wasn’t for her, and even if it was, she didn’t exactly have anyone she liked enough to marry. Or who liked her enough to marry her.

Now, though?

“Emotional dilemma #34,” she spoke into her recorder. “According to my data, couples who end up happiest usually spent approximately 24 months – that is, two years – in a romantic relationship before considering marriage. This, I assume, allows them to get to know each other better, resolve any issues before they’re legally stuck together, and ponder whether marriage is truly something they both want. Observation: Hordak and I have been in an official, mutually acknowledged romantic relationship for a little over two years now. Whether this information is relevant to my current dilemma remains to be seen, as I do not know his stance on the topic of marriage.” She paused, thinking. “Come to think of it, I don’t know mine, either. It sounds nice, to have someone by you, like a lab partner but for life. A life partner. A spouse. Someone who will never abandon you. Heck, why not? I mean, if the only difference between how we acted before and after that smooch on Prime’s ship was more smooches, then what difference would a pair of stupid metal bands make?”

“On the other hand,” she got up from the steps and began pacing around the hall, gloved fingers tracing along the intricately hewn columns that held up the ceiling. “On the other hand, relationships are confusing. First friendship, then love, then Love 2: Forever After. I don’t know,” down came the mask, obscuring her features. It was the mask Hordak had made her, with colour-changing lenses and adjustable noise absorption which he had added purely because he knew it was something she would appreciate. “I mean, we had switched from the first to the second rather quickly, but it turned out a lot less confusing because our romantic relationship is built on our platonic one, hence the changes weren’t as abrupt as I thought they would be.”

“Besides,” she grabbed one of the columns and spun herself around it a couple of times, “Hordak loves me, I love him, and if he hasn’t abandoned me by now, after Beast Island and Prime and two workshop explosions, then I think it would be safe to assume that he’s planning to… to stay with me for good?” The notion was a strange one. Throughout her life, Entrapta hasn’t had many friends: her childhood in Dryl was filled with robots; her teenage years in Mystacor’s top schools, with people who wouldn’t talk to her because she was “””weird”””, (cue air quotes) and most of her adult life with people who only wanted to be around her for her technological knowledge. In fact, she could list all the non-robotic friends she had and the number would remain in the single digits.

“Hordak, Scorpia, Bow, Adora, Emily,” she listed, sitting cross-legged in mid-air as her hair walked her all around the hall. “No wait, Emily is a robot. Not Emily. Where was I? Bow, Adora… Oh!” She snapped her fingers. “Imp! Imp is one, too. Then there’s Helios… though he’s more of a level 2 friend, while the rest are level 3 or above.” She rubbed her chin. “Note to self: I should make a new chart since the one I used back in the Fright Zone didn’t survive. Anyways, another perk of marriage could be flexing on Viki. Ooooh, I bet that he’s feeling really stupid right now!” She laughed wickedly, her legs kicking in the air. “Trying to prove that there is no extra-terrestrial life since college just because there was no recorded data of it. We could invite him and I could show off my wonderful awesome amazing lab partner and watch him tell the guests eeeeeeverything he knows about the Known Universe. Which is a lot. Because he’s wonderful awesome and amazing. I wonder if he would agree just to spite my ex.”

Knowing Hordak, he probably would; she would just have to ask if he was still uncomfortable with wedding parties. They could work something out, customise the event to their tastes and stuff, invite fewer people than the etiquette demanded, tie Catra up and hang her from the ceiling like a pinata for the robots to hit with a bat. Or a steel pipe. Or a crowbar. That alone, combined with Viki’s face and all the data they could collect would be worth all the effort.

“Well, look at me,” Entrapta lowered herself to the floor. “Looks like I just talked myself out of my dilemma. Question: do I want to get married? Answer: absolutely, if my lab partner would be comfortable with it. Reasoning: love, spite, data, and being called a Queen. Sounds good to me!” With that, she lifted herself up to the nearest ventilation shaft and disappeared within.

~~~

When she jumped out in front of Hordak’s door, Entrapta’s ears caught the faint sound of someone’s voice. A female voice, by the looks of it.

Curiosity piqued, she lowered the sound absorption setting and pressed her ear to the door, straining to hear the exact words.

_“…Milve took the god’s hand and vanished, giving their beloved one last farewell before their light went out…”_

Ooooh, she knew that voice! Hordak seemed to be listening to one of Cyan’s recordings – by the looks of it, about that one Chiropterian legend. Intrigued, she sat down and, with her ear still glued to the door, listened on.

_“Enraged, Silvah broke free of the bindings even as they seared their flesh, and spread their wings to fly in pursuit. They took into the air, leaving their homeworld behind and diving into the unknown universe. The path to the god’s domain was a difficult one, riddled with dangers and fierce foes sent by the Star-Eater to vanquish the young knight. Silvah braved through them all until at last, tired and wounded, they landed before the entrance to the Star-Eater’s kingdom: The Black Hole.”_

Interesting, Entrapta barely managed to keep herself from commenting into her recorder – she didn’t want her presence to be discovered. At least, not until she heard the rest of the tale. It really was interesting. According to Hordak’s explanations, black holes devoured everything, even light, so the idea of one being the gate to the evil god’s lair where they took the personification of light was rather fitting. She liked it.

_“And so, Silvah snuck into the Star-Eater’s floating fortress and sought out their beloved, chained down in the deepest pits of the vile god’s dungeons. Their light was weak, barely glowing, and for a moment the knight thought their beloved to be deceased. Tears fell from their eyes as they cradled their cold body close and wept, their heart breaking at the thought of having to live the rest of their days without the one they held dear.”_

Entrapta’s own heart did something weird and painful at that, bringing up a few rather unpleasant memories.

_“They placed a kiss on Milve’s lips, a goodbye, an apology that they could not save them in time, that they allowed the Star-Eater to take them away, that they did not fight harder, loved more fiercely, that they did not die to keep the one they loved safe. However, just as they were pulling away, Milve’s eyelids fluttered open, their light shining brighter than ever when they laid their eyes on Silvah and saw that they came to their rescue.”_

_“Mei Silvah,” they uttered, embracing their knight with all their might. The two, overcome with joy, swore to never part again.”_

_“As they were leaving the fortress, the Star-Eater appeared before them, their form tall and imposing, eyes burning with fury.”_

_“You dare to take what is rightfully mine?” they roared, drawing their sword to strike down the one foolish enough to deprive them of their betrothed.”_

_“In response, Silvah drew their own blade, shielding Milve with their own body, their wings protecting them from the Star-Eater’s bewitching gaze. And so, a duel began, a duel that would shape the universe as we know it today. Sparks fell from their crossed blades and turned into planets. When one fighter drew blood, it turned into a river of stardust or a nebula. Millions of galaxies were born and died as the two were locked in a deadly dance, the Star-Eater’s power slowly but inevitably bringing the wounded and exhausted Silvah to their knees.”_

_“Just as the god was about to deal the fatal blow, Milve jumped in front of their beloved and poured all their strength, all their magic into a flash of light so bright that it burned away the god’s many eyes. They cried out, recoiling, and Silvah saw their chance; with the last of their strength, they plunged their blade into the god’s throat, ridding the universe of their tyranny.”_

_“Afterwards, the lovers gazed at each other, exhausted. Silvah was bleeding out from their multiple wounds, while Milve had poured all of their life force into the spell. They fell into each other’s arms, at last together without anyone trying to pry them apart. Silvah pressed a kiss to their beloved’s forehead, wrapping their wings around the two of them as their physical forms dissolved, their souls escaping the mortal chains. Silvah, the protector, spread their wings and they became the sky, the darkness of space where there once was nothing. Milve’s soul split into countless particles, spreading all over the universe to become the stars so that, no matter where one looked, what sky one gazed up at, they would see the two lovers united, the darkness and the starlight, together until the end of time.”_

Entrapta sniffled, lowering the mask over her face. The tale was beautiful, the tragedy of the doomed lovers tearing at her heart. There was no happily ever after, no flying off into the sunset, and the true love’s kiss didn’t do shit against the Star-Eater. No, it definitely wasn’t a story for her, as beautiful as it was.

_“Linguistic note,”_ the recording made her look up, curious, _“the story of Milve and Silvah has inspired the use of “Silvah” as a term of highest affection among lovers. “Mei Silvah,” meaning “the sky to my stars” is very seldom used, reserved for lovers who consider their love as true and undying as that of the sky and the stars. The term has entered common use circa the year 14257ER, soon after marriages for love became more common in the Chiropterian society.”_

The sky to my stars, Entrapta mused, standing back up. She liked the sound of that. She liked that very much.

~~~

Hordak set down the datapad and stood up from his chair. He stretched, his back popping and his wings spreading across the entire room. The left one knocked down a half-finished robot, and he swore.

A knock on the door almost made him jump. A series of knocks in a pattern he recognised.

“Starlight,” he greeted his lab partner upon opening the door.

“Hi, Hordak,” she beamed at him, lifting up her mask. “Can I come in?”

“Naturally.” He stepped aside, allowing her to enter his quarters.

While he still preferred practicality over aesthetic, Hordak took a step away from the military minimalism of his private rooms in the Fright Zone; he got himself a proper bed, for example, with a decently soft mattress and some of the First Ones’ blankets he and Entrapta had brought from Beast Island. He also kept books and a personal computer hooked up to the database where Cyan uploaded her recordings whenever she remembered.* There was also a desk, a chair with a backrest made to accommodate his wings, and a fifteen-lensed telescope by the window.

(*The woman could be scatter-brained at times, especially when struck by an artistic muse; she could stay in her rooms for days at a time, painting or sculpting with hardly a moment of respite. To her credit, her works were getting so good that he had a few of them hung in some of Dryl’s hallways.)

It wasn’t much, but he didn’t need more. The kind of opulence he witnessed in some Etherian kingdoms made him feel ill.

Entrapta entered with an uncharacteristic calmness. She didn’t throw herself on his bed, didn’t spin around on his chair, wasn’t even talking about science or the adorable things she saw Emily do! Judging by the way her hair twisted at the tips, she was nervous. If she were happy or excited, her hair would be curling, not twisting. Two very different things.

Perched on top of the wardrobe, Imp gave a squeak of concern.

“Is something the matter?” Hordak echoed the sentiment.

She blinked, looking up at him with some surprise. “What? Oh, no, I’m good.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Are you sure?”

“Of course,” she waved his concern away, touching as it was. “I was just… thinking.”

She sat down, cross-legged, on the chair by his desk, idly examining all the junk he had piled on top of it: scrap robot parts, circuit boards, First Ones’ tech, tangled wires… it looked a bit like her desk, except she could see the, well, desk itself - hers looked like the aftermath of five consecutive grenade explosions and a medium-sized tornado thrown in for a good measure.

“Hey, remember when we had that talk about getting married?”

Hordak’s ears twitched a little, perking up. It was disgustingly adorable. “I do,” he replied.

“So,” a strand of Entrapta’s hair moved to weave itself around her finger. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot as of late. Do you still find the idea uncomfortable?”

He sat down on the bed, spreading his wings behind him. They made a breathtaking sight even after almost two years; dark blue flesh with white splotches here and there, slender finger bones with a crimson membrane stretched between them. Beautiful, just like the rest of him.

“Well,” he ran his claws through his hair. “Now that I had time to consider the matter from a number of different angles, I believe that I could find the process enjoyable.”

“Really?” Entrapta tore her gaze away from his wings and straightened up. “I mean, I’ve been thinking that, too. While large gatherings of people are generally okay with me, I used to be terrified of being the centre of attention of such a gathering.”

He nodded. “Agreed. However, I believe that if we sculpted the concept around our desires and changed several details in order to accommodate us,”

“It would end up a lot less daunting, and even enjoyable,” she finished, warming up, “while still giving us heaps of data on the guests.”

“Exactly. Pass me the holo-pad, will you? Thank you.” Hordak accepted the device from a tendril of hair which gave him a little pat on the head before retreating. He decided not to comment on it. “I did some research into Etherian wedding customs,” he explained, swiping around until he found the right file, “and I believe that we could easily work around the more inconvenient ones if we so desired.”

“And do we?” Entrapta leaned forward. “I mean, I’ve never really…”

“Me neither,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “I have told you already that I want you in my life no matter what our relationship would look like. This,” he made a vague hand gesture, “is new territory for both of us…”

“Confusing,” she muttered, then positively lit up, “But what is a lab partner for if not for helping you figure things out?”

“Exactly,” he chuckled. “I believe that, to us, something the likes of marriage could be nothing but another experiment, something to examine and understand together. However,” a blush crept over his cheeks. “I… If you truly want to bond with me in such a… permanent manner, I would love nothing more.”

“So,” Entrapta pushed the chair towards him, “you really want to be my lawfully wedded lab partner?”

Hordak lifted a strand of her hair and brought it to his lips. He nodded.

“I do, my Queen,” he said, then his face split into a devious, disarming grin. “I very much do.”

She raised an eyebrow, having known the bastard bat too long to not recognise his Scheming Face™ when she saw it, but elected to simply nod her head and lean forward for a smooch.

She would find out in time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, now that that's finally behind me, I can get to the GOOOOOOOOOD STUFF. I apologise if this was tedious, but according to my research, one should first discuss the idea of marriage with their beloved before proposing, so that they do not catch them unprepared and pressured into a marriage they are not mentally prepared for. In short, let the proposal be a surprise, not the marriage itself. It makes for a healthier relationship, I think.
> 
> Also, I've been rereading "Green is the New Red" and I cannot emphasise how much I love that fic even though I've never been this pissed off at a piece of writing before. Ever. So now I'm pouring all my spite into making this fic as fluffy and sweet and CONSENSUAL as I physically can.


	3. Chapter 3

Hordak has never been an early bird. The sun irritated him and he would blow it up if he could, especially at five in the morning when it made him want to crawl underneath the bedsheets and hiss at it until it went away. However, this particular morning he got up bright and early, groggily swallowing his painkillers as the robotic arms were putting on his exo-suit. One brushed against his wing, making it twitch and reminding him to recalibrate the machine. Again.

All dressed up, he stood in front of a mirror, a tub of hair gel in one hand and a black make-up pencil in the other. After all, he had to look perf-

No.

After all, he had to look good if he wanted the day to turn out good as well. Not perfect. Good. Perfection was overrated and just hearing the word made his skin crawl.

He completed his daily routine in silence, quickly and efficiently, snacking on the tiny sandwiches brought by a robot as he did. The steak and tomato ones were his favourite; their taste was like ambrosia compared to the bland ration bars he was accustomed to. Well, he has never tried ambrosia but he imagined that it was good if only the gods were allowed to eat it.

Having left two tiny sandwiches for Imp, who was still buried in the blankets and replaying someone’s snoring, Hordak opened a drawer of his desk and produced a small black box. He pocketed it, swallowing down his excitement and calling forth every ounce of his composure to stop himself from sprinting to the kitchens.

~~~

Entrapta was still asleep when he opened the door, tangled in both the blankets and her hair, one arm hanging off the bed and clutching a three socket wrench. She was snoring. Loudly.

Hordak couldn’t help but smile like the absolute soft bastard he was and quietly stepped over the numerous inventions and scrap parts littering the floor to get to her bed. Moving a stack of scientific journals to the side, he placed the tray he was holding on the bedside table and leaned over the sleeping Princess.

“Wake up, starlight,” he brushed a strand of hair off her face. It tried to fight back, tugging at his fingers like it wanted him to lie down as well. “Science never sleeps, remember?”

Entrapta’s eyes fluttered open and oh, she had no right to be this beautiful while looking this dishevelled. It was illegal. This woman deserved to be in jail for innumerable crimes, tax evasion being the least serious of them.

“Mmmmmmmmmhhhmhmhhey Hordak,” she hummed, raising herself up on one elbow and squinting against the sunlight falling through the window. “Can we blow up the sun today?”

“Not today, I’m afraid,” he replied with only partially false regret in his voice. “I have something planned, but first,” he lifted the cover from the tray on the bedside table, “the most important meal of the day.”

Entrapta immediately snapped awake when she set her blurry gaze on the six tiny sandwiches arranged neatly on a plate. Peanut butter and jelly by the looks of it – her favourite. What really got to her, though; what made her sit up and flap the sleeves of the grey hoodie she wore to bed in pure and unadulterated delight was that…

“They’re bat-shaped!” she exclaimed, grabbing the tray and pulling it on her lap, lifting up each sandwich to examine it from all sides.

“I had them made just for you,” Hordak said with no small measure of pride. “Butterbats are still a work in progress, but I hope that these are an acceptable substitute.”

Entrapta held one sandwich-bat up for him to see, her voice pitched up in glee as she gasped out: “And this one has teeny tiny eyes!” Indeed, the sandwich had two holes poked in it with a toothpick. “Hordak, they are the cutest thing ever! I almost love them too much to eat them.” With that, she bit off half of the bat’s right wing, chewing happily.

Yes, almost.

Hordak waited patiently until she finished eating, handed her the bottle of berry soda he also brought with him when she asked, and busied himself with trying to make sense of the mess on her desk while she was showering in the adjacent bathroom. Picking up a block of post-it notes, he wrote down _“use Einethezer’s equation instead”, “I have spare Mx15 bolts if you need more”, “where did you find a T46735 stabiliser? I need three”, “great soldering on that board”_ and other little somethings before sticking each note to the relevant part or stack of pages.

“So,” Entrapta bounced out of the washroom, dressed in her usual shirt, suspenders and boots and with her mask already over her face, “where are we going? What are we doing? Are we going to build another portal? That would be _so_ awesome now that there’s nobody to electrocute me before I tell you that it’s too dangerous to be opened.”

“Patience, my dear,” Hordak ignored the last sentence, wincing at the unpleasant memories it brought up, “though now that we know how to do it, we could try again sometime. As for where we’re going…”

He led her to their shared lab/workshop, smiling when she hopped over a small cleaning robot with a knife taped to it. The Vroom Brooms (VBs for short) were his lab partner’s newest project which, judging by how spotless the lab’s floor was, could be considered a success. And yes, the knife _was_ included in the original blueprints.

Entrapta was practically vibrating with excitement when they entered, bouncing on the tips of her hair and looking around the space. Her eyes immediately landed on a package sitting on her desk, sporting Mystacor’s import seal.

Hordak silently handed her a knife and watched as she proceeded to tear the cardboard apart, briefly stepping aside to avoid being stabbed in the shin by a VB on its way to clean up the bits of card falling on the floor.

“I thought that your collection was somewhat lacking,” he remarked, approaching the workspace to see Entrapta leafing through a journal on the history of the First Ones by Lance Archer-Hoode. “Issues 1-15, all first editions.”

She looked up at him, eyes wide and glimmering like stars.

_“On The First Ones And The World Before Ours,”_ she read out the title, holding up the cover for emphasis. “You got me the full set of the most expensive journals in the field?!”

He nodded.

“Issues 1-5 aren’t even allowed to leave Mystacor!”

“I do not remember the last time you cared about what was, quote-unquote, allowed, starlight.”

“AND they’re first editions!”

“Only the best for you.”

Entrapta looked at the cover of the rather thick book she was holding, then at him. At the book. At him. At the book…

“I could kiss you right now,” she said calmly, matter-of-factly, “but I don’t think that I would be able to stop.” She then pressed the journal to her chest and let out a glass-shattering, ungodly _shriek_ that left her lab partner’s ears ringing.

“HORDAK, THIS IS INCREDIBLE!” she launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and bouncing up and down on her hair at such speed that her wide grin was almost a blur. _“YOU’RE_ INCREDIBLE. HOW DID YOU GET YOUR HANDS ON THEM?! TELL MEEEEEEEEEE!!!!”

It took Hordak, who was still recovering from the unexpected sonic blast, a moment to process the question.

“A mixture of bribery, blackmail and threats,” he replied eventually. “It was easier than it had the right to be, really. The archivists are underpaid and will accept money and coffee from anyone in exchange for anything.”

Entrapta nodded, gave him a quick peck on the lips as a thank you, and was already back to flicking through the journals with the face of a starved fox in a chicken coop. Yes, she wasn’t going to get any sleep that night, he could already tell. The following night was out of the question, too. And the next one. And the next…

He cleared his throat. As tempting as it was to let her read as much as possible now so that she wouldn’t look and act like a caffeine-deprived cadaver later, there were other activities he had in mind.

“Have you noticed anything else in the lab that was absent before?” he asked.

Entrapta immediately set down the journal she was holding and jumped to the middle of the room, flipping the mask over her face and scanning her surroundings in search of any other gifts. Her attention was immediately drawn to a number of small, grey cubes stacked neatly in a pyramid on a bench next to the tool cabinet no. 12.

“Ooooh,” she sped over there, picking up one of the cubes and examining it closely. “What are those?”

In response, he pointed at the device resting next to the pile; it looked like a small ray gun. “Aim at one and find out.”

Curiosity piqued even further, she grabbed the gun and, tossing one cube in the air, fired.

The effect was immediate. With a short flash of light, the cube changed shape and form so that, when it fell, Entrapta caught a brand new set of tiny tools.

She gasped. “Your miniature particle condenser!” she cried out, holding up the gun. “I thought that it was lost when the Fright Zone was destroyed!”

Hordak grinned. “Not quite. It was broken when I found it, but I managed to repair it while you were busy with the VBs. There were some parts I had to replace completely, like the power supply and most of the outer casing, hence why it looks different than the first model. Go on now,” he gestured at the remaining cubes. “Keep shooting.”

She made an excited sound like a boiling kettle and picked up another cube. This time, it was a carefully sealed box of M-425 cores, their soft turquoise light peeking through the seals in the packaging.

Another cube, a brand new pair of welding gloves.

Another, a flash drive.

“What does it do?” Entrapta eyed the tiny device curiously; she knew better than to plug it into her computer right away – that corrupted First Ones’ disc was more than enough to teach her that lesson.

“Oh, that one?” Hordak walked over to take a closer look. “I think that this one is…” he scratched his head, frowning. “The black flash drive was, I believe… It is either the full version of SIM-I-O 54352 or a code I wrote for the VBs to form battle formations. I’m not sure, there are two black flash drives in there.”

“Full version of SIM-I-O?” she repeated, eyes lighting up. “Where did you get _that_ from? The trial version alone is a fortune.” SIM-I-O 54351 was an expensive top-notch data simulation and analysis program written by the best of the best in the field. Back in college, she had to use SIM-I-O 54324, and the computers in Crypto Castle only had 54329. She didn’t even want to know the price and paperwork necessary to obtain the full latest version.

“Pirated it.”

She crossed her arms. “No way.”

Hordak blinked at her, feigning innocence. “Would I ever lie to you, starlight?”

“How did you get past their security?”

“I programmed a virus to disable it long enough for me to download it,” he explained, wincing at the all-nighters he had to pull to do so. “Do not ask me how long it took me to get the code just right.”

She whistled with admiration. “You _have_ to show it to me later.”

“Very well,” he nodded, doing his best to stifle the proud grin that was threatening to bloom on his features. “However, SIM-I-O is bound to have updated their security since then, so I doubt that it could be used again.”

She waved a tendril of hair dismissively. “I’m not planning to. At least, not yet. I just want to see your handiwork.”

“Later, then. There are still plenty of presents left for you.”

Entrapta giggled, clutching the condenser. “I feel like a child on a Candlenights morning!” she squeaked and fired a round at the remaining cubes.

A box of tiny chocolates – her favourite kind. A red flash drive. _“Into the World of Engineering: Annual #43”._ A purple and grey bat plushie with red button eyes and a massive grin. A purple ray gun. Another black flash drive. A hand-painted portrait of Emily (commissioned from Cyan – Emily was an excellent model and received a retractable cannon as a reward for her patience.) A set of maps.

“Beast Island?” Entrapta asked, holding one up.

“It is,” Hordak confirmed. “It took me some time to dig through my older files to find it, but I did manage in the end. It is not fully accurate (the First Ones’ research outpost is not marked there, for example) but it provides a rough outline of what is located where.”

Three packs of batteries (for the recorder). A silver flash drive. A welding torch. Another box of tiny chocolates. A set of surgical scalpels. Two boxes of tiny cupcakes. By the time there was only one cube left, Entrapta was laden with gifts and giggling like a delighted child.

“You are the BEST LAB PARTNER EVER!” she threw her hands in the air with a cry of joy. “I don’t even know what to say! Is there an occasion I’m not aware of? Is it my birthday already?”

Hordak shook his head. “No special occasion,” he informed her, secretly feeling the black box in his pocket. “I simply wanted to make you happy.” This was what people wanted for those they loved, right? To feel happy. To feel loved (or LUVD). To never, ever feel like there was nobody who cared about them, that they would eventually be abandoned by everyone around them.

“Well, you did!” she bounced up to him and pulled him into a hug, sighing happily. “I am as happy as can be. Positively bursting with joy! It is scientifically impossible for me to get any happier.”

He raised an eyebrow, his lips curling into a smirk. “Is that so?”

“That _is_ so.”

“What of the final cube, then?”

She eyed the tiny thing, eyes narrowed challengingly. “What else did you stash in there?”

“Find out yourself.”

Spinning the particle condenser around her gloved finger, Entrapta fired one last time. A flash, and the tiny, unassuming cube turned into a slightly bigger, slightly less unassuming machine she was unfamiliar with. As soon as it was uncondensed, it whirred to life.

Hordak was already across the room, turning off the lights.

As soon as he did, a miniature universe sprang out of the device, filling the dark workshop with thousands of tiny holograms of planets and stars, marked constellations and strings of co-ordinates. All of them were glowing a soft, light blue colour.

“Sector 7543-A,” he explained, returning to Entrapta's side. “According to my data, it is about five days of flight away from Etheria’s current location in the Known Universe.” He glanced at his lab partner, who was gazing at the little bit of space in her workshop with literal stars in her eyes. “If you wish, I could take you there one day.”

Entrapta gasped, tearing her gaze away from the planet F-63532 Omega to look at him and oh, the blue glow was making her look… wow. For a split second, it made Hordak forget how to breathe.

“You…” she uttered, her voice quivering with emotions. “You… you will take me there?”

He nodded, too lovestruck to do anything else, and suddenly found himself being pulled into a tight embrace by arms and hair alike and then Entrapta was kissing him in that special way that threatened to fry his brain every time she did it and

“Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!”

_If I could take down the stars and weave them into your hair so that you could always carry a piece of the universe with you, I would do it without hesitation._

~~~

Noon came and went, as did a robot with two trays of lunch, as they sat in the lab and Entrapta listened to Hordak talk about all the worlds he had seen as a Horde soldier. She was lying on the floor with her head on his lap, eyes half-shut as he gently combed his claws through her hair.

“That planetoid,” he pointed at the hologram next to F-63532 Alpha, “is Sirelle. It was named after the first queen of the people who used to inhabit F-63531 before Horde Prime ordered its destruction. There is no atmosphere there, and for fifty-five days of the year, it rains small, extremely sharp particles of metal. Sirellium, we called it.”

“Sirellium,” Entrapta murmured, trying to visualise what the surface of a planet plagued by raining metal could look like. “Does it have any interesting properties?”

“Not really,” Hordak shook his head. “Its composition closely resembles iron, except there is nothing on Sirelle that could make it corrode. It is a barren wasteland.”

“I see. Tell me about that constellation?” A tendril of hair rose up to point at a cluster of stars a little to the right.

“The Hourglass,” he explained. “Or, well, that is the closest Etherian word I can think of. It is named _grivitrev,_ literally _time-sand._ I’m afraid I do not know about the origin of the name or its significance for the people of F-63531, but do you see that star at the top?”

“The small one?”

“Yes. Stars like this one are named Red Dwarves. I believe that the name speaks for itself.”

“Tiny and red?”

“Mhm.”

“Sounds adorable.”

He rolled his eyes, smiling. Of course.

Entrapta wiggled a little to make herself more comfortable, a strand of hair wrapping around his hand. Such a vast universe brimming with countless planets, and they were lucky enough to wind up on the same one. She didn’t think there was anything she was more grateful for than that mysterious portal that sent his ship into Etheria.

_“A Prince from beyond the stars, with skin as pale as freshly fallen snow, hair as dark as the sky on a moonless night, and eyes as red as crystallised pomegranate seeds.”_

There was an ancient legend, one of the first in Etherian history, of a Princess who found her way to the kingdom of the dead. Curious, she descended into the depths where no mortal had ever gone before and stood face to face with the Prince of the Dead. Initially furious at the intrusion, he told her to be gone from his domain, but she lingered despite his threats that, over time, turned into a curiosity similar to her own. They began to talk, and the Prince told the Princess about his duties, sang her the lullabies for the restless dead, and even showed her the Pale Garden, where his father, the King of the Dead, kept a single tree the colour of bone, its branches heavy with pomegranate fruits.

“If you eat but a single seed,” the Prince warned her, “you will be forced to remain here forever.”

After no time, for time did not pass in the kingdom of the dead, they fell in love. However, the King noticed his son’s distraction and, angry that a mortal was pulling him away from his duties, ordered to have the Princess removed from the kingdom forever, meaning that her soul would not go there after death and she would become a ghost wandering the mortal world, invisible to all and alone for the rest of eternity.

Hearing this, the Prince begged her to leave before it was too late, before they could never see each other again, but the Princess was as headstrong as she was curious. Weaving past the spectral guards who tried to seize her, she ran towards the pomegranate tree and grabbed a single fruit. Giving her Prince a mischievous smile, she tore it in two and took a large bite, crimson juice dripping down her chin and onto her pristine white dress, staining it. Red. Red. Red.

Entrapta thought that she was slowly beginning to like it more than purple. Not that there was something wrong with purple! It was her colour, after all, but red… Red was Hordak’s.

Speaking of whom, her lab partner cleared his throat suddenly, snapping her back to the blue-black reality around them. “I, ah, I have something to discuss with you.”

“Oh,” she sat up, crossing her legs. “Of course, what is it?”

She wasn’t sure in the darkness, but he might have blushed. “I wanted to show you the robots out in the courtyard first, but I do not think that there will be a more opportune moment.”

Shit, now that he said it there was no going back. Hordak cleared his throat once more, took a very slow, very deep breath to steady his racing heart, and began the speech which took him twice as long to write as the virus that broke through the security system programmed by the best of Etheria’s scientists.

“I have journeyed across thousands of galaxies. I saw more worlds than I can count, met beings both kind and cruel. In all my years, however, I have never met anyone anywhere near as wonderful as you.”

Entrapta’s breath hitched in her throat. She was quiet, though, something telling her that the matter was an important one.

“Before you came into my life, I was as good as blind, stumbling through the darkness in search of what I thought I wanted. I was so accustomed to being alone, regarded as a failure and an outcast from both my brethren and those who served me that, for a long time, the idea of loving you did not even cross my mind. I find it odd in retrospect, for these days I can hardly find a moment when some part of my heart is not screaming for you, metaphorically speaking.” He chuckled, running his claws through his hair nervously.

“I… When I first met you, you were the most confusing thing on Etheria. Not even my first seconds on this planet could compare. You were completely unfazed by my (rather embarrassing) outburst, fixed a problem which I have been slaving over for weeks in five minutes, and then flat out refused to leave. I have to say, I would have allowed you in eventually even if you hadn’t insisted. You fascinated me, Entrapta. You were so unlike anyone I have ever met, brilliant yet chaotic, a complete antithesis of the stifling and sterile perfection I was used to. I was even slightly afraid of you for a short time. You did not fear me, why did you not fear me? It was beyond the scope of my comprehension. You were not afraid, or disgusted, but merely curious. I did not understand it, did not understand you, but I desperately wanted to. So I allowed you to stay, to try and understand you… But the more I learned, the less I cared about understanding you and more about simply being with you. You turned my world upside down, completely flipped it on its head, and I liked it that way! For the first time, I ached for something other than the routine I was born into.”

_Horde Prime’s venom-green eyes, narrowing dangerously. “There was even a time you wished I would not come for you, is that so?”_

Hordak chased the memory away before it made him sick.

“If it hadn’t been for Catra bringing us the Sword of Protection, I would have followed your suggestion and delayed our work on the portal,” he confessed. “I could have, should have scrapped the whole plan and settled down on Etheria, forgetting about my brother and that cursed empire of his. If I had known what events would transpire, I would… I should have…” he shook his head. “You were right. You were always right. The more I listened to you, the more I found my heart aching to hear you explain yet another one of your theories even though it had nothing to do with our project, the more convinced I was that you are simply too good to be true. That is why, when Catra lied about your betrayal, I believed her.”

His gaze fled to the side, ashamed.

“If I had known from the start that you were on Beast Island, I would have sought you out right away. If I had known…” he sighed. “If I had not discounted you like a complete and utter fool… If I had known that you were in danger, I would have come for you sooner. If my legs had failed me, I would have crawled to you through blood, sweat and tears, tearing through anything or anyone standing in my way. Not for a single moment did I think of abandoning you, of presuming your death even when all odds pointed to it being the most probable outcome. No. Not you.”

“H-Hordak…” Entrapta choked out.

“When Horde Prime saw into my mind and located you as one of my weaknesses,” Hordak carried on, “my primary concern was your safety. I was afraid that he would try to hurt you. Of course, I know that you are more than capable of looking after yourself, but you do not know my brother as well as I do. The fact that we managed to bring him down was nothing short of a miracle, believe me. I know what he was capable of, and I know what he could have done to you.” A shudder crawled up his spine, his throat closing dangerously. He swallowed, willing his voice to remain steady. “When he took away my memory, the loss of you was the most painful right after the loss of my name. He stripped me of my memories layer by layer, saving my identity for the end so that I knew what he was taking from me. You…” despite his best efforts, his voice broke. “You were the first to go.”

The ghost of the horrible, horrible feeling akin to having his very heart ripped out from his chest still haunted his nightmares even years after the event.

“My mind was the sky of Despondos, a starless void that gnawed at my being with teeth like shards of broken glass. I was gone, nothing but another porcelain doll dancing on my brother’s strings. I was nothing. H_14700730, class 3 drone awaiting either death or another round of orders, with the former being more likely. I do not know what would have happened to me if you hadn’t come to my aid.”

He reached up to his collar, fingertips brushing against the First Ones’ writing. LUVD. Loved. “The crystal… You…” His gaze met hers once more. “You lit up my world. Literally. The First Ones’ crystal seems to have reprogrammed my memory chip somehow, granting me the privileges of an administrator. Within a second, my mindscape was lit up by a million of stars, each one a memory. In the centre, right above my head, I saw a constellation.”

Entrapta was gazing at him in rapt silence, those beautiful eyes he fell in love with at two to five times a day wide and focused on nothing but him. Those very eyes were the first thing he saw upon awakening. It felt like a blessing.

Hordak tapped the crystal. “I saw this,” he told her. “A diamond-shaped cluster of purple stars that shone so much brighter than the rest. I have never seen anything so beautiful before. I reached out, curious, to see what memories it held, what could possibly create such beauty. I saw _you._ Only you could be brilliant enough to sneak into the flagship of the Emperor of the Known Universe, steal its floor plans, disable the alarms, locate the heavily guarded reconditioning chamber, and free your absolute hopeless fool of a lab partner whose poor life choices keep landing him in trouble while all he wants is to hole up in a lab all day and work while listening to the sound of your voice even if it would be reading the most boring report in existence.”

He smiled, feeling the nervous grip around his ribcage loosen ever so slightly when she smiled, too.

“My starlight, I speak more languages than I care to list, but I cannot find any words capable of expressing how much you mean to me.” He took her gloved hand in his. “I still find love confusing. Hells, we have been together for two years and I have stumbled through every day of that time praying that I do not mess this up because you are the single best thing to have ever happened to me. I know that you find this confusing too, and I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am that you have chosen to stay with me as we work it out together. I only have a vague idea of what I am supposed to be doing, but the fact that you are still here implies that I have not done anything catastrophically wrong just yet.”

She snorted quietly, adorably.

“I adore listening to your insights,” he carried on. “You always have fascinating things to say and I find it appalling that nobody has bothered to listen to them until now. I love your enthusiasm and the way your eyes shine when you are excited about something. I love your eyes; they always remind me of stars - one day I will draw a star chart to avoid getting lost in them. I love how your hair curls at the tips when you are happy, and puffs up when you are surprised or angry. I love the small wrinkle that appears between your eyebrows when you are focused on something, and the tone of voice you use exclusively for recordings. I love your handwriting – the way you draw _y, j_ and _g,_ and how you are in such hurry to get your ideas on paper that you forget to dot the _i_, so words such as _minimum_ resemble one continuous squiggle. I love how your voice pitches up when you are excited, or the little focused pout you do when you start stimming.”

“You notice the pout?” Entrapta asked, leaning forward.

“Of course I do,” he replied like it was obvious. “Your expression changes into a delighted smile 0.5 to 3 seconds later, but I do notice it and consider it adorable. My hypothesis is a variant of _you are what you eat: _you consider tiny food adorable, so the more of it you consume, the tinier and more adorable you become.”

She pouted, adorably. “I am not tiny.”

“From my perspective you are.”

“Well, from _my_ perspective you are a giraffon.”

He laughed. (Interestingly, he has been doing that more often ever since he and Entrapta began living together.) A giraffon! That was a first. “My point is: I do not think that I have ever been happier than when I am by your side, conducting experiments and cheering when something blows up regardless of whether it was meant to do so or not. You have taught me so much, brought so much joy into my life and I can only hope that I have done the same for you. There is nobody I love and respect more than you…”

Aaaaand here came the most important bit. Don’t fuck it up don’t fuck it up don’t fuck it up don’t fuck it up don’t fuck it up don’t fuck it up don’t fuck it up don’t fuck it up don’t fuck it up don’t fuck it up DON’T. FUCK. IT. UP.

“…and so,” Hordak steeled himself and, with his heart hammering inside his chest, took out the tiny black box he has been thinking about all day, “I officially announce that I wish to spend the rest of my days with you.”

Entrapta gasped, eyes widening and hands and hair alike flying up to cover her mouth. Please, let it be the good kind of shock. They talked about this already and he was approx. 95.7873% sure that he interpreted her words correctly.

“I have no lands or titles that matter in the world of Etherian politics,” he said. “The Fright Zone is no more and any material goods I could give you are within your reach already. I have nothing to offer to you, Princess Entrapta of Dryl, aside from what I have only regained relatively recently, but which I offer to you freely and with no hesitation: myself.” he placed his free hand over his chest, over his racing heart. “I have told you already that nothing in our relationship needs to change if you do not desire it to. I wish to undertake this experiment for two reasons: data, and to prove to you my love and loyalty to you and you alone.”

He opened the box, revealing a First Ones’ crystal, roughly the same size and shape as his own, with the same symbol carefully engraved into its surface, the same word that lit up his mindscape like a beacon guiding his lost soul out of the darkness.

LUVD.

In contrast to his crystal, though, this one was a vivid red. It took him some time to figure out how to change the colour designation from error to default so that the previously blue gem could change its colour, but he hoped that the result was satisfactory.

“Entrapta of Dryl,” lifting the box up, he recited the words he has been practising until even Imp got fed up and left his rooms. “My starlight, will you m-“

“YES!” Entrapta tackled him before he could finish, making them fall back on the floor, her arms and hair wrapped so tightly around him that he couldn’t breathe. “SPRINGS AND SPROCKETS, HORDAK, OF COURSE I WILL!”

She laughed, wiping her eyes with her sleeve and burying her face in the crook of his neck, her whole frame shaking with laughter. The sound set him off too, as did the realisation that wow, she really did say yes to that. She said yes! HE FINALLY GATHERED HIS GUTS AND PROPOSED AND SHE SAID YES!

He propped himself up on his elbow and pulled her into a kiss, laughing against her lips, every atom of his being saturated with joy so overwhelming that it made his head spin.

When they pulled away, Entrapta dug the recorder out of her pocket and, slamming the REC button, all but yelled into the speaker:

“EXPERIMENT: I'M TOO HAPPY TO THINK OF A NAME LOG, DAY ONE. GUESS WHO JUST PROPOSED TO ME.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FUCKING FINALLY. These two wouldn't cooperate for the first two chapters but here we are, a solid 5k words later than I originally anticipated. This fic was originally going to be 4 chapters long and definitely less than 10k, I have no idea what the fuck is happening but hey, as long as you guys are enjoying this, so am I.
> 
> Yes, the miniature particle condenser is basically the de-gun from "Megamind" and yes, Stabby the Roomba did get a cameo, but look me in the eye and tell me that Entrapta wouldn't make at least 15 of the little bastards. 
> 
> Fingers crossed that I manage to write and upload the next chapter before Christmas.


	4. Chapter 4

Scorpia looked up from a pile of papers, startled by the sound of her communicator buzzing. She carefully took the device into her pincers and immediately smiled when she read the caller’s ID.

“Hi, Entrapta!” she said, gently pressing Answer. “What’s up? You know, I was about to call you about something…”

“Pincers! You picked up!” Entrapta exclaimed, sitting cross-legged at her desk and scrolling through the information she and Hordak had dug up about Etherian wedding customs. “Listen, you know how you’re my BFF?”

“Best Flesh Friend, yup!” Scorpia nodded. This meant that she had the honour of being on the short, short list of people whose company Entrapta preferred over that of machines.

“Well, I have a favour to ask of you,” she toyed with a strand of hair, winding it around her finger. “How would you feel about being my maid of honour?”

The idea hit Scorpia like a sledgehammer. “What, like in theory? In pure scientific theory?” Her voice pitched up with excitement at the sheer idea.

“…Sure.” There was a split second of a pause before the word, something she didn’t think anything of.

“Girl, I would be honoured!” The Princess of Serketolis pulled up a blank page and immediately started to doodle over it. “I mean it, nothing would make me happier. Would we wear matching accessories? I could hook you up with this couple who makes the _best_ cupcakes and I bet that they would be more than happy to make tiny versions.” She frowned. “I don’t really see you in a dress, though.”

“Yeah, I know,” Entrapta agreed, taking a sip of pop. “They’re crazy uncomfortable, and it feels so weird to have my legs exposed like that. I mean,” she made a vague gesture with the bottle she was holding, “you know. Not in pants. There is so much air touching them it’s weird.”

“I getcha,” Scorpia nodded solemnly. “And there are no pockets!”

“Girl, don’t get me started on pockets! It is a disgrace, let me tell you. My mother’s wedding gown doesn’t have a single one! You’d think that the Queen of Dryl would value them more.”

“True.” Doodle Entrapta was wearing a nicely cut suit with a purple bowtie and suspenders - because Scorpia couldn’t really visualise her without them either. Would Hordak wear a suit, too? Come to think of it, she has never seen him in anything that didn’t resemble that robe-dress-thing. “So, did that answer your question?”

“Yup,” came real Entrapta’s reply. She internally let out a sigh of relief. “You’re the best, Pincers, you know that?”

Scorpia smiled, giving her doodle self a matching purple flower in her hair. “Anything for ya, Shooting Star.”

“Now, that was in theory. How would you feel about practice?”

She dropped the pencil.

~~~

“Scorpia said yes,” Entrapta announced, rolling into the workshop on her chair and startling a gaggle of VBs. “And I mean a very, _very_ definitive yes. She cannot be more yes about it - she has made it _incredibly_ clear that there is no way she could be more yes about it.”

Hordak raised his head from the drawing board; he was designing a new arm for one of the robots.

“I am glad,” he set the pencil down and moved a little to the side, allowing his lab partner to have a look at the sketches. “The pneumatic mechanism in the original was poorly insulated, hence the malfunction – I am trying to improve it.”

She nodded, a strand of hair reaching for a blue pencil and quickly scribbling something down in the corner. A calculation here, an exploded view of section A there…

“Looks good to me,” she announced, rolling away from the desk. “Good call on using the Mx15 screws instead of Mx06 – those are a nightmare to find when one rolls under the desk.”

“Try looking for one with wings on your back,” Hordak chuckled, secretly preening at the praise. Even though both he and Entrapta had a more or less equal level of expertise when it came to robotics, the robot was one of hers so he preferred to consult her about the changes. “I need a taller desk.” He flexed his wings to accentuate his point.

“I’ll make you one as a wedding gift,” Entrapta promised, raising herself on her twintails to give him a peck on the cheek. “Disintegration ray and all.”

Her desk had its own disintegration ray, too; she used it for instant cleaning up.

“I would love to,” Hordak said with a soft smile. “Now, returning to the matter of the wedding…”

His lab partner sat back on her chair, looking up at him with her head quirked attentively.

“Do we still want Emily to be the flower girl?” she asked. The robot was positively overjoyed at the idea and she would hate to take it away from her.

“Of course!” his eyebrows shot up in surprise at the possibility of it being otherwise. “I know no one more worthy of the task than her.”

“Alright! So that’s confirmed.” Out came the holo pad. “We’ve decided that one of those big and fancy ceremonies are out, so I don’t think we’ll need a gaggle of bridesmaids and groomsmen.”

“No,” he agreed. “A robot or three for each of us should be enough.”

“Yup. You still need a best man.”

He let out a tired sigh - damn, he was supposed to think about the matter, and to his credit, he was before N-454 (aka Pookie) showed up with a missing arm. “Right. Yes.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I was thinking Helios, actually. He’s relatively level headed and trustworthy.”

Entrapta hummed, jotting the name down. “I could build you a robot for that, too,” she offered. “I could make it look like Horde Prime. It would do everything you’d tell it to, even do a silly dance. Oh!” She snapped her fingers. “We should make it wear a silly outfit.”

Hordak frowned. “That sounds petty and childish,” he hummed, rubbing his chin. “Tempting, though. I will keep the proposition at the back of my head. Can Imp not do that, though?”

“Imp’s the ring bearer,” she reminded him.

“No chance of being both?”

“Nope.”

“Right.” He leaned back in his chair, altered to accommodate his wings. “The guest list?”

There was a series of beeps and boops as Entrapta switched through the tabs on her holo pad. “Adora, Bow, Queen Glimmer, Perfuma, Mermista, Frosta and Double Trouble,” she read. “These are the guests from beyond Dryl. I’m not counting Scorpia because she’s automatically invited as my maid of honour.” According to the etiquette, there had to be at least five Princesses present for the ceremony to be considered official. This was fine by them; it made for a good social experiment, which was a big part of why the wedding was happening in the first place. “No Catra, though I suspect that she will invite herself, anyway.”

“Of course,” Hordak’s voice dropped to a growl when he thought of the furry wretch. “Sounds reasonable. And from within Dryl?”

“Cyan, Helios, Dandelion, Seven, Silke, Alora and Drew. Dandy has a green thumb so he should hit off well with Perfuma.”

“And I imagine that Silke will criticise everyone’s outfits.” Hordak rolled his eyes, lips quirking up in a smile. Silke, he/him or they/them, used to be one of Prime’s personal attendants responsible for his clothing. The coral-eyed clone had a bit of an obsession with fashion and textile design and could verbally maul anyone over even a single stitch out of place. Putting them in the same approximate location as Double Trouble should be interesting.

Speaking of whom, he had a task for them. Knowing them, they would invite themselves, anyway, but Entrapta had some questions for them and he would prefer to secure their good graces by sending them an official invitation.

“Oh,” Entrapta tapped him on the shoulder. “Can I invite my ex?”

He sat up straighter, brows furrowed in confusion. “Your…?”

“Ex,” she repeated. “Ex-boyfriend. Somebody I used to date before we broke up.”

“You used to be in a relationship?” he exclaimed, shocked, and then rushed to elaborate before she misinterpreted his reaction. “I apologise; I am merely surprised that somebody would enter a relationship with you and want to leave it.”

Well, that and he would have thought that, due to her isolated upbringing and her evident lack of experience with social situations, the majority of Entrapta’s life has been solitary. The idea that she used to have someone before him has somehow never occurred to him.

“Oh,” she blushed, lowering her mask halfway over her face. “I… Thank you. His name was, um, Viki. Vikiford. We met in college.” The mask came down completely as the unpleasant memories returned. “He was the only one in my class who would talk to me, who would work with me. The rest of them found me too… weird, they said. My findings made no sense, they said.”

Hordak grit his teeth in a snarl.

“Fools,” he drawled, anger clawing its way up his throat.

“Viki… Viki was the only one to listen to me. It started when he asked me for help with his assignment. After that, we hit off really well and started spending more time together. His company wasn’t unpleasant, though, in hindsight, he didn’t respect my boundaries like you and Scorpia do. Still, he was the only person I had, and college was already terrifying and unfamiliar enough, so I guess I clung to him out of safety.”

He nodded. “That is understandable; I know the feeling of being stranded in an unfamiliar environment.”

Entrapta raised her mask, just a little. “If you’re comparing the experience to crash-landing on an alien planet, then you’re right – it felt something like that.” She smiled. “Only smaller, I guess. Anyway,” Down came the mask again. “When he asked me if I would like to be his girlfriend, I said yes because I figured that it would have kept us together. Besides, I think that I really liked him more than anyone else I knew, so I figured that hey, why not?”

There, her voice dropped a little, the spark dulling ever so slightly. “The week before graduation, we got into an argument. A really big one. It was weird because we’ve never had an argument before. It was about…a scientific disagreement.”

Hordak frowned. “Your relationship ended over a scientific disagreement? We have plenty of those.”

“Mhm, it was more about how he handled it.” Entrapta twirled a strand of hair around her finger. He couldn’t help but notice her twintails frizzling up like they always did whenever she got angry. “Viki never liked being told that he was wrong. In anything. Once he made his mind up about something, it was the only truth and anyone who claimed otherwise was wrong. The argument was, believe it or not,” she chuckled, “about the existence of extra-terrestrial life.”

“Extra-terrestrial life.”

“Yes! He claimed that, since there are no planets around Etheria and we have not made any contact yet, there is no way that there is other life out there.” The frizz was greater now, and Entrapta’s voice was growing quicker, angrier. “I do understand his train of thought now that I know that Etheria was literally isolated from the rest of the universe, but I believe that, just because science has found no evidence of something so far, doesn’t mean it’s not there!”

Hordak nodded. “And you are right. He appears rather closed-minded if you ask me.”

“I know!” she waved her arms in the air. “And when I told him that, he called me ignorant and said that my theories were scientifically implausible due to the lack of evidence!” There, her voice dropped in volume to a mutter as she lowered herself back to the floor from where she lifted herself during her speech. “After that, he said that he doesn’t want to talk to me anymore. He just… left, like the time we spent together meant nothing to him.”

_“He abandoned me,”_ she did not say, but the unspoken words rang loud and clear in the silence around them.

A low, rumbling noise left Hordak’s throat. It wasn’t a growl – it was to a growl what a forest fire was to a spark. Anger flared in his chest, a crimson flame akin to the one that felt like it was consuming his very being as he sank his teeth in Horde Prime’s throat. More instinct than logic, it painted an image before his eyes; of some pathetic, snivelling brat who discarded the most brilliant mind on all of Etheria because of his overly inflated ego, cowering in a corner before him. Hordak wouldn’t kill him, though, as tempting as the idea was. No, he would make him see what he had missed on, gaze with wonder at the inventions that came to life under Entrapta’s hand and hair, technological marvels that would have propelled Etheria into a new age had someone stopped for a moment and listened to this absolute miracle of a woman. No, Hordak wanted him to witness the genius of his lab partner and then fall to his knees, begging for her forgiveness.

He would only kill him if she said no.

“You…” he uttered, swallowing back the fury with some difficulty, fists clenched and struggling not to smash something. “What he said… I have never heard such idiocy in my life, and I worked with buffoons the likes of which you cannot even imagine.”

A snort sounded from behind the mask, a quiet giggle. He took it as a good sign.

“I have told you once that any who dare to discount you are utter fools,” he carried on, “and this story only confirms me in this belief. I cannot fathom how someone so closed-minded and ignorant could have advanced so far in the field of science. One should never assume something impossible on the basis of the lack of evidence, and his insulting treatment of you was uncalled for; you did not deserve it.”

The mask went up a little, barely revealing a pair of magenta eyes. “Do you think so?”

“I know it,” he affirmed, standing up to approach her. “If you wish to see him at our wedding, I will allow it, though I do not promise that he will leave it unscathed.”

Entrapta smiled, just a little, and raised the mask fully. “Thank you for understanding,” she said. “Last time I checked up on him, he was a pretty important figure in the field of aerospace science, though I wonder what his status is after the whole mess with leaving Despondos and Horde Prime. I kind of want to invite him here just to rub it in that I was right and he was wrong.”

“Petty,” Hordak rubbed his chin, “and once again, incredibly tempting. Shall I make a point to sing praises about your technological prowess and intellect just to rub in what he missed on by letting you go?”

She scratched her head. “Would it also make him feel even more stupid?”

“Definitely.”

“I’m putting him on the list, then.”

“Seat him at the children’s table,” he suggested.

Her eyes twinkled mischievously. “Oooh, great idea!” She cackled evilly, her hair making the necessary adjustments to the seating plan. “And we won’t serve any alcohol, only fizzy drinks. I’ll make a point to include peach soda – he hates it.”

Neither of them were particularly fond of consuming alcohol; Hordak because it dulled the senses and Entrapta because the taste was gross.

“Right, what’s next?”

“The favours,” Hordak remembered. “What are those, again?”

“Hang on…” Entrapta opened the relevant tab. _“Your wedding favours are a way of saying thank you to your guests; a small token of your appreciation for their sharing in your special day. Traditionally guests would receive a small bag or box containing 5 sugared almonds representing the five blessings of Health, Wealth, Happiness, Long Life and Fertility.”_ She closed the tab, scratching her head. “I was thinking of doing that but Bow is apparently allergic.”

“We could use those tiny chocolates you like,” he suggested. “Milk chocolate with strawberry swirls?”

“Or we could laser-cut small metal hearts with a thank-you message on them. My parents did that.”

That also seemed like a good idea, and if he had to be honest, Hordak liked it a lot more – those chocolates seemed to be growing on him, too, and it would be such a shame to waste them.

“I will sketch up a pattern,” he promised. “As always, you have brilliant ideas, starlight.”

A slight blush coloured Entrapta’s cheeks. “Thank you,” she playfully booped him on the nose. “What about the menu? Are we still in agreement about it?”

“We are,” he nodded. “The décor?”

“All set.”

“The vows?”

“Unless you have something to add to them, all we need is to memorise them.”

He shook his head. “They are perf… They are great the way they are. The invitations?”

She consulted the holo-pad. “All written out, just need to be printed and sent. We’ll make the wedding rings ourselves, right?”

He nodded.

“Good. I will get Scorpia to arrange the cake and we’ll clear up the rest closer to the date.” She pocketed the device and jumped up with a squeal of delight. “I can’t believe that we’re actually doing this!”

Hordak chuckled, allowing her hair to pull him into a hug, a pleasant warmth radiating from his heart. He couldn’t believe it, too. The greatest experiment in their lives as well as the greatest commitment, the clearest way of saying “I will never abandon you”, and they were on a good way to making it happen! Two, three years ago he would have never believed that he would one day be planning his own wedding day. So many things have changed in his life ever since Entrapta broke into his sanctum that fateful day.

And he was going to be with her forever! Officially! Legally!

Oh, he could almost visualise her standing on the steps of the Castle’s main hall, bathed in the light coloured by the stained glass window and looking like a goddess, like starlight incarnate. Her snow-white gown glittering like freshly fallen snow…

…Wait, what? The vision paused with a screech of the brakes.

Hordak pulled away, frowning. “You’re not going to be wearing a dress, though?” he asked.

Entrapta shook her head. “No, why?”

He thought so. “A suit, then?”

“Nope, the fabric feels really weird.” She lowered the mask, looking away. “I didn’t really… think about it yet.”

He took a step back, thinking. Would it be better if he showed her… Should he?

“You know what?” he snapped his fingers, red eyes lighting up. “Follow me. I want to show you something.”

Entrapta obeyed, tilting her head quizzically as they left the workshop and headed down the corridor.

“You were not supposed to know about this,” Hordak chewed on his lip nervously. “It was supposed to be a wedding gift, in fact, but since you… I mean, I would be honoured if you, uh…” A blush coloured his cheeks. “If you…”

They approached one of the many identical doors that lined the hallway. Hordak typed in the 15-digit code and it slid open with a hiss.

“It would mean the world to me… I mean, you by no means have to…” he was stumbling over his words now. “If you wish, if this seems to be a more agreeable alternative, then…”

A strand of hair gently brushed against his lips, shushing him. Entrapta gazed at the gift, eyes wide and sparkling like the brightest of stars.

“Hordak,” she breathed, “it is beautiful.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [exhales] Dear fuck, finally. I'm tired from all the Christmas prep and my inspiration's been pretty absent as of late, so writing this chapter felt like pulling teeth, but I'm happy that I managed to complete it at last. Should be smooth sailing from here on. I hope to finish this fic by the end of the year as a little late Holidays present for you guys.
> 
> Truth be told, I wasn't sure about this chapter but I really wanted to set up a bit of more Scorpia and Entrapta bonding, plus expand more on the lab partners' preferences for such an affair - both of them seem uncomfortable with this kind of thing so I tried to kinda... tailor it to their needs, as well as expand on Entrapta's fallout with Viki. I headcanon her as bi, btw, so just because we've only seen her date guys doesn't mean she can't be a wlw. Just wanted to clarify that.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moments just before the ceremony.

_Greetings and salutations, Queen Glimmer of Bright Moon,_

_You are cordially invited to the wedding ceremony of Princess Entrapta of Dryl, and Lord Hordak, previously of the Fright Zone. _

_The ceremony will take place in the Crypto Castle, Dryl, on the fifth day of the Month of Leaffall, from three in the afternoon to nine in the evening. You are allowed to bring a plus one._

** _ You are forbidden to bring weapons and any grudges should be left at the door – any attempt at violence at any point during the event will be punished by execution via the robot firing squad. _ **

_If you wish to attend, RSVP by the fourteenth day of the Month of Bloom and **bring this invitation with you on the day of the event or the robots won’t let you in** – there is also a 67.79% chance that one will try to throw you off a cliff. This chance will increase by 1.5% for every second you spend arguing with them, and by at least 52% if you try to throw them off a cliff, so don’t bother._

_We hope to see you there! :DDD_

_Signed, E & H <3_

_~~~ _

The silence of the dressing room made Hordak’s ears ring. He stood in front of the mirror while robotic arms were putting on his exo-suit, the ever-present pain dulling to a faint buzz after two pills and a glass of water that, unfortunately, did very little to drown out the uncomfortable feeling in his gut.

It was supposed to be the happiest day of his life. It _was_ going to be the happiest day of his life, even if he had to strangle Catra with his bare hands before she ruined something again. Everything was prepared, and all the preparations went without a hitch. It disturbed him; he was unused to things working so smoothly, so perfectly.

When nothing was wrong, his mind tended to search for any possibilities for it to do so, no matter how improbable and ridiculous.

The first suspect was, of course, Catra and the Rebels (he still called them that out of habit.) Whilst the rules of the ceremony forbade any violence and even the presence of anything that could be considered a weapon, he knew Adora well enough to know that life would find a way to make things difficult for her. He almost pitied her at times.

Dryl and Bright Moon have not been interacting much, eyeing each other cautiously and waiting for the other to strike first. He has been reading up on the war between the two queendoms which happened back during the reign of Queen Angella; she used to be a fearsome general back in the day, that was for sure, and Hordak was grateful that, should an open conflict break out, he would not have to face her. Dryl had only won by the skin of her teeth, and Queen Oshara had to build herself an artificial left eye, arm and right leg by the end of it.

“My lord?” Helios’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts before they had the chance to drag him too deep.

Hordak turned to him, carefully so that his wings wouldn’t hit anything. “What is it?”

The rookie engineer was holding the ceremonial cloak, a masterfully woven garment adorned with intricate ornaments and with the emblem of Dryl in the centre. The fabric was deep red and spilled from his hands like wine.

“What does it feel like?” he asked.

Hordak blinked. “I do not understand.”

“Love,” the other clone clarified, handing him the cloak. “Being so close to a fellow life form. Emotions are still new to me, and I have yet to experience this particular one.”

“Ah.” He accepted it, pondering the question, and what a difficult question it was! “Well, it can be scary – terrifying, in fact – but not in a way you would think."

"How so?"

Hordak sighed, resisting the urge to run his claws through his hair. It usually helped him think, but in this case it would've ruined the gel work. "It is something so beautiful, so incredible that you are afraid of losing it just like you are afraid of the day your heart stops beating.”

Helios nodded, eyes the colour of fire drilled into Hordak’s red as he listened attentively.

“I remember feeling for the first time,” he continued. “I had just crash-landed on an alien planet, stranded and far from my brothers. I was scared, I was confused, but at the same time I was…” He paused, searching for the right word. “Have you experienced this… strange exhilaration, too? A joy combined with fear as you realised that nobody was watching, that there was no limit to what you could do if you put your mind to it?”

Helios nodded once more, quicker. He leaned forward. “Yes! Yes, I felt it too.”

“That is what freedom feels like, I think,” Hordak told him. “Love does not feel quite the same, but similar. You don’t know what it is, or how it works, but you would rather die than return to the life you had before it.”

“It is confusing, too,” he carried on. “It grabs your life and flips it upside down, takes it apart while talking about portal technology, and puts it together into the most bizarre mess you have ever seen in your entire life.” He laughed, shaking his head. “It is beautiful, I would never trade it for anything. Two years of my life with Entrapta here in Dryl, and she still surprises me every single day. I have stumbled through every second of that time improvising as I went and praying to any higher being courteous enough to listen that I would not destroy this life we have built together.”

“Love, I believe, is finding someone who resonates with your soul. It is like you are fiddling with radio signal and suddenly attuning to the right frequency, clear as day and devoid of any static. Something just clicks, I cannot explain it better. It works, and it’s beautiful. It feels like the universe aligns itself into place while simultaneously falling apart and rearranging itself into something completely different.”

“That is to say, love is not kind.” He shook his head. “It cuts you open and drags out your deepest thoughts, your darkest secrets and the side of you which you would never let anyone else see. It sees you when you are at your worst…”

_“Imperfections are beautiful.”_

“…and decides to stay with you, anyway.”

“There is nothing I wouldn’t do for Entrapta, and I know that she feels the same about me. When she was taken to Beast Island, I didn’t think twice about going after her, just like she didn’t think twice about coming after me to Horde Prime’s flagship. I look at her and see her as my equal; someone I feel I can count on no matter what, and I strive to be the same for her. We have been through a lot, cherished the good and stayed by each other’s side through the bad. Still, we can go days without exchanging a word or even seeing each other as one project or another keeps us busy, and the lack of contact doesn’t make me love her any less. If anything, the joy I feel when I see her next time is all the greater.”

A soft, fond smile bloomed on Hordak’s lips as he thought of his lab partner. He hoped that she wasn’t worrying too much, that the day would turn out as beautiful as they planned it to be.

Helios reciprocated the smile. It looked a little odd on him - like his lips weren’t quite used to forming it just yet - but genuine.

“Hearing this warms my heart,” he said, bowing slightly. “I hope to one day meet someone I could make this happy.”

The two of them jumped as someone knocked on the door. Hordak’s wings flexed involuntarily, the right one slamming against the wall.

“Shit,” he hissed, biting his tongue, then called out: “Come in!”

The door opened and the robot M-302 (aka Blueberry) rolled inside. It regarded them with big violet eyes, and let out a series of beeps.

It was time.

~~~

“Wow,” Scorpia breathed when the fitting was complete. “You look…”

Entrapta gazed at her reflection, something strange and fluttery rising in her chest. She has seen herself in this outfit already, had to try it on once or twice in preparation, but seeing herself now…

There she stood, the future Queen of Dryl, donned in a spectacularly made exo-suit similar to Hordak’s except for a couple of alterations which he had made with her in mind, like the intersecting plates that were flexible enough to allow her to move comfortably, but hard enough to protect her from harm. At the collar, shining with the light of a red dwarf star, was the crystal Hordak had proposed to her with. Its position mirrored his own, and she fancied that both glowed just a touch more brightly when in close proximity to each other.

Placing a gloved hand over it, she whispered, voice barely audible through the emotions clogging her throat: “I look beautiful.”

Somehow, the suit felt more comfortable than any dress she ever wore. It reminded her of the way Hordak embraced her sometimes, the way her body seemed to fit perfectly into his arms or the way his wings felt like a weighted blanket, shielding her from the outside world when it got too much. She thought about him, and about the upcoming ceremony. So many preparations, nights spent lying in bed and staring at the ceiling as her brain burned through every possible scenario, every possible way the happiest day of her life could potentially go wrong. Hopefully, her future husband wasn’t overthinking himself into a spiral, too; he tended to do that when things were going “too well.”

“You sure do.” Seeing her concerned expression, Scorpia placed a reassuring pincer on her shoulder. “Don’t you worry about a thing, Shooting Star. Nothing will go wrong, and if it will, I’ll throw it off the cliffs myself.”

Entrapta giggled, mentally visualising Scorpia, in her flowing black and red dress, carrying Catra out of the castle and just throwing her into the darkness below. Of course, it didn’t have to be Catra, but according to 46322 out of 62245 simulations she and Hordak ran, she was the most likely one to cause trouble.

“I’m fine,” she smiled back at her Maid of Honour. “I am just… nervous, I guess.” Her hair, released from the twintails and pooled around her feet, twisted anxiously. “This is completely new territory to me. I can do Princess Prom, but here I will be the centre of everyone’s attention.” Her, plain old Entrapta. The nerd. The weirdo. Normally, she wasn’t bothered by what people thought of her, but this situation was so…

_Confusing._

Scorpia scratched her head. “I think I see what you mean,” she said, then patted the chair next to her. “Come here.”

Entrapta obeyed, silently grateful for the opportunity to sit down.

“It will be okay, alright?” the other Princess’s voice was soft and calming, soothing. “I promise you. Nothing bad will happen. I will be there, Hordak will be there, even Imp and Emily will be there with you. And if at any moment you feel that you need a break,” she reached into her handbag, carefully pulling out Entrapta’s mask, “you just let me know and I’ll get you out of there so you can recharge your batteries. Just tap me on the shoulder twice like we practised, and you’ll be somewhere quiet in an eyeblink.”

“Tell you what,” she clicked her pincers loudly – her equivalent of snapping her fingers, “Perfuma has been teaching me this meditation technique, said it helps you calm down. Do you want to try it now?”

Entrapta shook her head, quietly considering the floral Princess. Last time they interacted, all the way back when they were infiltrating the Fright Zone to rescue Glimmer, Perfuma had tied her to a vine leash like some sort of dog to keep her from wandering away. While she was too distracted with the gravity of the mission to say anything back then, the humiliating experience has been festering at the back of her mind for a long time now.

“No, but thank you, Pincers,” she elected to say, brushing the thoughts aside. "Can we change the topic?” She didn’t want her mood to sour even more on what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life.

“Sure, by all means! I just…” Scorpia tapped her chin. “I just want to cheer you up but I don’t know…” Another loud click, a lightbulb coming on in her head and making her expression light up from within. “Oh, I know! Listen, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you _forever_ but I keep forgetting. if you don’t mind, I mean.”

Entrapta sat up straighter, curiosity piqued despite the anxiety writhing in her stomach. “What is it? Do you want something to channel your powers? A rod? A gun?” Her eyes lit up. “Ooooohhh, I could whip up some _amazing_ knuckle dusters – I mean, pincer dusters – for you that’ll carry the charge and shock better than a stun baton.” Immediately, her mind sprung into action, excitement dulling the anxiety almost immediately. “Do you want them in red? I can make them red. I think it’s my favourite colour by now, what with it being yours and Hordak’s and all. I mean, purple is great, too, but saying that it’s my favourite colour would be like saying that my favourite activity is breathing or that my favourite food is tiny. You know what I mean?”

Scorpia laughed, quietly relieved to see her friend back to normal. “Yeah, yeah, I do, and I would _love_ that. Think you can make them gold, too? Or copper, at least. How about ornamentation?”

“Well,” the soon-to-be Queen of Dryl scratched her head. “I could make them gold-plated, but the metal itself is too soft to be of any use in combat. The F-454753/brass alloy would be better, I think, and I wouldn’t go too heavy with ornaments because they likely won’t survive too long in the heat of battle. A couple of subtle engravings, maybe. Do you have my holo-pad?”

A swarm of violet tendrils dove for Scorpia’s handbag before the latter could as much as blink. They rummaged through it for a moment before pulling out the device with a triumphant “ah-ha!” from Entrapta.

“Actually,” Scorpia grinned awkwardly as her friend was busy sketching up concept designs, “this isn’t what I was going to ask about, but girl, I would LOVE a pair of these babies. Concept three, especially.”

“I can make you a couple of sets if you want,” Entrapta replied, not looking up from drawing. “Once Hordak and I get back from our honeymoon.”

“He still hasn’t told you where he’s taking you?”

“Nope. Just told me that it’s a science expedition and that he’s taking me to a place I’ve never been to.” A soft smile curved her lips as she thought of her lab partner. She couldn’t wait to get the ceremony over already so that she could smooch him senseless. “What were you going to ask about?”

“Well,” Scorpia blushed slightly. “I’ve been doing some research into electronics. To better use and understand my powers and stuff. What exactly is electricity, how it travels and what materials are the best conductors and insulators… Stuff you probably have in your little finger.”

“Yup,” Entrapta nodded.

“And I was wondering… would you tutor me a bit when you get back? Some of the stuff just fries my circuits if you know what I mean.” She made an exploding gesture over her head. “All the units and equations…”

“Oh,” the other Princess lowered the holo-pad with some surprise. “Really? I’d love to! But…” she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Wouldn’t that be helping the enemy?”

“You’re right!” Scorpia gasped, pincers flying up to her mouth. “I forgot that we are enemies! The Big Bad Princess Alliance against an undefeatable army of robots bent on world domination! How could I forget? Yes, we are very much enemies.” She nodded seriously. “Especially during our weekly sleepovers.”

“Definitely,” Entrapta agreed. “I remember your nefarious plot to bribe me with tiny biscuits to lure me back to your side. What are you planning to offer to me in exchange for this?”

A small giggle escaped Scorpia’s mouth. Games like this one were one of her favourite parts of being a Princess. “Well,” she tapped her chin with a pincer, feigning deep thought, “what if I told you that Bow’s dad has a whole library dedicated to the history of the First Ones…”

“Wait, pause.” Entrapta held out a hand, all the little gears and sprockets in her head turning at the speed of sound. “A library? In the Whispering Woods?”

Scorpia nodded.

“Tall, glasses, long hair?”

“Yup.”

“Name’s Lance?”

“Yes! How did you know?”

Entrapta took a deep breath, quietly pondering her confirmed suspicions, before exploding:

“BOW IS ONE OF THE SONS OF PROFESSOR LANCE ARCHER-HOODE?!” She raised herself on her hair, eyes wide and stimming rapidly to let out even a fraction of the excitement that was crackling through her body like electricity. It made her hair fluff up. "_THAT_ PROFESSOR LANCE ARCHER-HOODE?!”

Scorpia took a step back, startled. “Whoa, Shooting Star. You’ve heard of him?”

“Heard? HEARD?! THAT MAN IS THE GURU OF THE FIELD. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE FIRST ONES’ HISTORY, YOU GO TO HIM.” Entrapta threw her hands in the air. “NOBODY KNOWS THEM BETTER THAN HE DOES, NOT EVEN ME!”

“Seriously?”

“YES.”

“Wow.”

“AND YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT BOW IS ONE OF HIS KIDS?!”

Scorpia nodded as Entrapta lowered herself on the floor, her hands still shaking a little as she processed the news. “Yes. Did he never say anything? Didn’t introduce you? Wait.” She held out a claw. “Wait. Wait! So are you telling me that Bow’s last name is Archer?”

Entrapta nodded.

“Archer-Hoode?”

“Yep.”

“Hoode as in Robyn Hoode, from that story about a guy who was, you know, an archer?”

“Yes, as in Robyn Hoode.”

“Seriously?”

“Bow Archer-Hoode, yep. You know, in hindsight I should have figured this out sooner.”

“Yeah. So, back to our deal.” Scorpia quickly changed the subject before her mind was blown even further. “You tutor me, say, twice a week, and in exchange I’ll bring you anything you want from his library every time I visit. Photos, scans of books, answers from any questions you pass on to me... how does that sound?”

Entrapta sighed, sitting cross-legged in mid-air, supported by her hair. “You drive a hard bargain,” she hummed, “but very well. You have yourself a deal, Rebel.”

She extended a tendril of hair officially, which Scorpia shook, equally officially. They maintained extremely serious eye contact for about three seconds before bursting into laughter.

“You really are the best, Shooting Star,” Scorpia chuckled, shaking her head. “Seriously. I think I’ll even throw in George’s recipe for tiny macaroons as a little bonus to our deal.”

“How tiny are we talking?” Entrapta crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow with a large grin on her face. Any lingering worries she had were long gone and forgotten.

“Extremely so.”

“Excellent.”

They were interrupted by a polite knock on the door.

“In!” Entrapta called out.

It opened and a small robot rolled inside. D-453 (aka Bloop) by the looks of it. It beeped at them, making an adorable salute with its cannon arm and then beeping out something else.

It was time.

Entrapta took one last glance at the mirror and, satisfied with the way she looked, threw her arms around Scorpia in a hug.

“You are the best flesh friend ever,” she told her, smiling when she felt the other Princess reciprocate. “Thank you for everything, Pincers.”

“Anything for you, Shooting Star,” Scorpia replied, a pleasant warmth blooming in her heart at the words. “Now get out there and smooch that bat of yours.”

Laughing, the future Queen of Dryl unglued herself from her best friend and, after grabbing the ceremonial cloak, dashed after the robot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll get this fic done by the end of 2019, I said. No biggie, I have plenty of time, I said.
> 
> Cue exams, placement interviews, and so, so, so, [voice breaking] so much bullshit. I'm so sorry for the delay, my munchkins. Thank you so much for your patience and your kind comments.
> 
> ALSO, THIS FIC WAS SUPPOSED TO BE 4 CHAPTERS LONG AND NO LONGER THAN 5K WORDS. HOW IS IT ALMOST 20K WHAT THE FUCK.


	6. Chapter 6

The hall was dead quiet, making the excited beating of Entrapta’s heart sound almost deafening in her ears as she stood in front of the stained glass window, gazing up at the first queens of Dryl. She wasn’t allowed to look back at the tall double doors behind her; it apparently made her seem less regal, which was a big steaming pile of toxic waste. Why the hell shouldn’t she be anticipating the arrival of her husband-to-be?

The thought that Hordak was really going to marry her sent her already racing heart on a miniature caffeine spree, bouncing all over her chest cavity like a happy little sledgehammer. At her feet, her hair writhed and curled and twisted like a violet angry sea, impatient to grab her lab partner and smooch his lights out.

She glanced a little to the side at Scorpia. The other Princess took in her giant grin and the way she was all but vibrating on the spot, and mouthed “breathe.”

Oh, that’s right, Entrapta realised as she proceeded to do so. She was so excited that she literally forgot to breathe. It was one of those things living beings needed to do in order to maintain their existence, though it could be a nuisance at times. Robots had it easier.

Speaking of robots, the robot official played back the sound of clearing his throat and adjusted his bowtie. M-45478 (aka Twisty – on account of his moustache) was equipped with a full recording of what an official was meant to say during a wedding ceremony, though they had to alter some bits for it to work for them. She even programmed him to react to certain words so that he wouldn’t interrupt her or Hordak in the middle of their vows or something.

Hordak. She was marrying Hordak.

A happy shriek rose up to her throat, threatening to burst out and vaporise everyone’s eardrums. She swallowed it back quickly, settling for stimming to let out some of the built-up energy, rubbing the fabric of the purple ceremonial cloak between her fingertips and mouthing her vows in preparation for…

M-9558 (aka Mixtape) snapped her fingers and the silence was shattered by the sound of organs that sent a bolt of lighting up Entrapta’s spine, making her straighten up instantly. There it was. THERE IT WAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

_“Here comes the groom,”_ sang a chorus of robotic voices, _“here comes the groom. Last chance to run for here comes your doom.”_

“What’s up with the song?” Adora whispered to Glimmer, leaning across to her in her seat. “I mean, I know it’s Hordak, but…”

“Nobody is allowed to leave once the ceremony starts and Drylan weddings typically include at least one explosion,” Glimmer explained. “It is polite to warn the guests in advance and give them enough time to evacuate if they wish.”

“Shhhh!” Bow shushed them, nodding at the door. “Here he comes.”

~~~

Hordak almost let out a cry of relief at the sound of the organs. He quickly brushed some invisible dust from his black dress adorned with Dryl’s crest and readied himself. Dear stars, he thought that the wait would kill him!

The double doors swung open, allowing him to enter the main hall. Since he was the party marrying into Drylan royalty, it was tradition that he had to walk all the way there to be symbolically and legally accepted into the family, _walk_ being the key word; it was taking every ounce of his self-control not to just throw himself forward and sprint all the way to Entrapta’s side. Or fly. His wings were itching to do something, anything. One flap was all it would take to send him across the hall and straight into her arms and/or hair.

Entrapta. His lab partner. His starlight. He was going to marry her he was going to marry her hE WAS GOING TO MARRY-

He was one strand – one tiny strand of willpower away, thin as a breath, from breaking out into a huge, idiotic grin as he slowly, almost painfully slowly, walked between the rows of seats, counting every step bringing him closer to his WIFE TO BE DEAR STARS THIS WAS THE BEST DAY OF HIS LIFE and passing Catra, whom he gave a death glare politely informing her that he would do unspeakably horrible things to her if she decided to screw this absolutely wonderful day for him and

_Entrapta._ A quiet gasp left his lips when his gaze returned to her, standing there with her back to him, her hair down in a beautiful violet cascade. She was wearing the suit which he had made for her SHE AGREED TO WEAR THE SUIT SHE LIKED IT SO MUCH THAT SHE CHOSE TO WEAR IT AND focus, Hordak. Don’t give yourself a heart attack on your damn wedding day. Focus. Calm down. Breathe.

After what felt like an aeon, he finally approached the steps. One, two, three, and there he was, standing right by Entrapta’s side, gripping the ceremonial cloak to keep his hands from shaking from how much he wanted to pull her into an embrace and never let her go.

The music stopped and they turned to face each other. The coloured light falling through the stained glass window was making nebulae dance across Entrapta’s skin and hair as she stood opposite him, smiling that smile which always took his breath away and rubbing the fabric of her ceremonial cloak between her fingertips like it was the only way she could release the built-up excitement within her. It shone through her eyes, wide and bright and beautiful.

On cue, everyone attending stood up from their seats.

_“Life forms and mechanical constructs,”_ Twisty intoned. _“We have gathered here on this day to celebrate the union of **Princess Entrapta of Dryl** and **Lord Hordak.** The essence of this commitment is the acceptance of each other in entirety, as lover, companion, friend and **lab partner**. A good and balanced relationship is one in which neither person is overpowered or absorbed by the other, one in which neither person is possessive of the other, one in which both give their love freely and without jealousy. Marriage is a sharing of responsibilities, hopes, and dreams, aiding each other in pursuit of happiness and fulfilment, as well as walking the path of scientific discovery hand in hand and sharing both the joy of a successful experiment or discovery, and the frustrations of a failed endeavour.”_

Entrapta blinked back a wave of happy tears as she looked up at Hordak. He was smiling down at her, a soft smile that made her heart flutter in her chest. It was doing a manner of odd nonsense, truly.

Twisty carried on: _“Love is a sacred thing; it defies logic, escapes all scientific understanding as it is far more than a simple mixture of chemicals released by one’s brain when faced with the object of their affections. Love is sacred, and powerful. With it metaphorically blooming in one’s heart, wonders can be achieved. It takes a lot to make a Drylan discard their sacred logic and follow their emotions on this marvellous path; if one can achieve this, they have already proven themselves an apt ruler and conqueror, and will make a fine addition to the royal family.”_

Hordak bit his lip to keep his smile from widening.

Somewhere in the back rows, Frosta stifled a yawn.

“Ugh, they have a nerd-themed ceremony,” she whispered to Perfuma sitting next to her.

The Princess of Plumeria nodded absentmindedly, stifling a shiver. The lack of plant life was making her nervous; the Crypto Mountains were a barren wasteland, but the castle itself was so full of machinery that she couldn’t get hold of anything, not even a stray root. The Crimson Waste was livelier than this place, for crying out loud!

_“Now,”_ Twisty addressed the couple. _“Do you both pledge to share your lives openly with one another, and to speak the truth in love? Do you promise to honour and tenderly care for one another, cherish and encourage each other, stand together, through sorrows and joys, hardships and triumphs for all the days of your lives? **Do you swear to cherish each other for your imperfections,** to guard each other from danger and to face the joys and hardships of life as one? Do you swear to fight for your love, to not give it up in the face of failure? To, in the event of said failure, try at least two more times in order for it to be statistically significant?”_

Hordak and Entrapta nodded in unison. “We do.”

On cue, Imp gracefully glided down to them, dressed in an adorable tiny suit with an even tinier bowtie. It was holding a metal box, which it handed to Twisty before perching on top of Emily’s chassis.

_“You may speak your vows now, **Lord Hordak,”**_ Twisty informed Hordak. According to the tradition, the party marrying into the family had to first pledge themselves to the one they were marrying, just in case.

There it was. THERE IT WA- shit, stay calm. Stay calm stay calm why was it so difficult to breathe all of a sudden STAY CALM.

He took a deep, calming breath before beginning.

“To you, Entrapta of Dryl, I swear my love and undying devotion.” As he spoke, he proceeded to clasp the red ceremonial cloak around his wife’s shoulders. “Red is the colour of passion, of emotions that defy any logic that governed our lives before they intertwined. May it remind you that, until the end of our days, I hereby swear to always stand by your side as companion, friend, lover and lab partner. I swear to never abandon you, and to cherish your happiness as if it was my own.” Entrapta blurred in his eyes as they filled with tears. As he spoke the next words, his voice broke just a little. “You are the brightest star on my sky, Entrapta. You are the spark to my flame, the G to my C, the A to my T.”

“Oh no, they have science-themed vows,” Mermista groaned from the back row.

“Oh no, they have science-themed vows,” Bow sobbed into his handkerchief.

“And I promise to you,” Hordak grasped her hands, tears of pure, unadulterated joy streaming down his face, “that I will never let you forget even for a second that you are the most magnificent being in all of existence. You are made of the universe, my love. The iron in your blood, the oxygen, carbon, nickel… all the elements that make up your being come from stardust. I have seen the universe, seen stars be born and die – millions of them: protostars, neutron stars, red dwarves, white dwarves, T Tauri… and yet none shine as brightly as you do. I swear to never let anyone dim the light you carry within you and to never attempt to tamper with it myself. I will stand by you through the good and the bad, walk beside you into any research endeavour as long as we will write the conclusion together, sharing our insights like we share kisses.”

He paused for a moment to collect himself. “And if, at any point in our life together, you feel like I am failing to fulfil any of these promises, I am officially giving you my permission to blast me with your death ray.”

“She has a death ray?!” Catra hissed into Adora’s ear, eyes wide with sudden terror.

Entrapta laughed, reaching to wrap the cloak tighter around herself. Good stars, she was about to start crying, too. Good thing she chose not to wear make-up after all.

Satisfied with the vows, Twisty turned to her. _“Do you accept, **Princess Entrapta of Dryl?”**_

She nodded, willing her voice to stay calm and steady. “I do.”

_“You may speak your vows, **Princess Entrapta of Dryl.”**_

“To you, Hordak,” she began, clasping the purple ceremonial cloak around her lab partner’s neck and letting it fall between his wings. Eh, it was all for show, anyway, “I swear my love and undying devotion. Purple is the colour of Dryl, and this cloak marks you as one of our family, long may we reign. May it remind you that you are not, nor will you ever be alone in the universe, that I swear to remain by your side through the good and the bad, through flame and high water, malfunctioning robots and corrupted signals tearing into our minds, through sickness and buggy code, and many other things I have already prepared detailed and foolproof plans for. I am particularly proud of the meteor shower one – I will show you later.”

Hordak chuckled. He couldn’t wait. The ceremonial cloak felt like a warm embrace, and the feeling of belonging it brought was far less unpleasant than he secretly expected. In fact, it wasn’t uncomfortable at all! Compared to Horde Prime’s stifling “you belong with us” that always made him feel like he was mile underwater and choking on his last breath of air, this felt like the opposite. Warm. Freeing.

The cloak didn’t say _“you belong with us.”_

It said: _“you are welcome here.”_

And that, to him, meant more than anything his brother has ever done.

“I swear to never let you forget how incredible you are,” Entrapta continued, her hands finding their way into his once more. “You are the strongest, most brilliant and resourceful person I have ever met, fierce like an F-59256B robot and a-cute like an angle. You are not a defect, never were, and I swear to never make you feel like one and to obliterate anyone who would. You are my friend and lab partner, a person in your own right and not a copy of someone else. You are you and I wouldn’t have you any other way.”

This was happening. This was actually happening! Entrapta felt like she was about to start bouncing with joy. She swallowed back a fresh wave of tears and finished her speech:

“I cannot wait to share the rest of my days with you. If, at any point in our life together, you feel like I am failing to fulfil any of these promises, I am officially giving you my permission to blast me with your death ray.”

_“He_ has a death ray, too?” Catra was beginning to regret not leaving the hall when given the warning to do so. Oh, why did she agreed to attend as Adora’s plus one? There were countless other ways of showing that she was developing into a better person, damnit!

_“Do you accept, **Lord Hordak?” **_Twisty asked._**  
**_

Hordak nodded, blinking back tears. “I do.”

Hearing this, the robot opened the box and produced two simple metal bands, hand-forged by the couple without the use of any machines, as per tradition. He handed one to each of them and waited in silence.

“In that case,” Entrapta slid her band onto Hordak’s finger, “from this day on, you shall be known as Lord Hordak of Dryl; my companion, friend, lover and lab partner for the rest of our lives.” She smiled that smile again, and Hordak almost forgot his lines as he momentarily got lost in her eyes.

“I care not for titles,” he said, sliding his band onto his wife’s (oh stars, she was his wife now) finger, “only the promise of your companionship, for you are dearer to me than anything in the world.”

And so, the bands were exchanged; two tiny electrons used to create a covalent bond stronger than anything in existence.

_“By the power bestowed upon me by my creators,”_ Twisty called out, almost giving Entrapta a heart attack because she knew what he was about to say next. _“I now pronounce you **Queen Entrapta** and **King Hordak** of Dryl. Bow your heads to accept your crowns.”_

They complied as two silver crowns adorned with white and purple jewels were placed on their temples.

_“Walk away now, in peace and love towards your new life together, filled with remarkable scientific discoveries waiting to be discovered and fascinating experiments waiting to be conducted. May your days be filled with joy and only the good kind of explosions.”_

Come on, come on…

_“You may now…”_

COME ON COME ON COME ON! GET ON WITH IT!

_“…kiss the groom.”_

“YES!” No longer able to contain her excitement, Entrapta threw her arms around her husband’s neck and dragged him down into a kiss as he pulled her into a tight embrace, wrapping his wings around the two of them and laughing against her lips, tears of joy streaming from their eyes.

Next to them, Twisty’s head detached from his body and flew right up to the domed ceiling of the hall, where it promptly exploded.

~~~

“A bit unorthodox,” Glimmer said as she sipped a glass of raspberry soda, “but nice of them to get the explosion out of the way.”

“Mhm,” Bow agreed as he stuffed his face with tiny macaroons. “Do you think there will be more?”

“Nah, I don’t think they'll bother.”

On the other side of the room, Hordak gently nudged his wife (wife!) and pointed at the cupcake tower that served as a (vastly superior) alternative to a wedding cake.

“See the one on the second tier?” he asked. “#fdf3ff instead of #fef9ff like the rest?”

Entrapta looked up from petting Imp. “Which one? Oh, I see it, yep.”

“It contains a harmless explosive detonated by a motion sensor. It will blow up in the face of anyone who picks it up.”

She let out a devilish laugh, clapping her hands in delight. “Wonderful! I wonder who is going to pick it up!”

“I hope it’s Catra.”

“Me too. Or Perfuma.”

“That pirate would likely write an embarrassing shanty about it.”

She snort-laughed into her own cupcake. Seahawk wasn’t too far away from the snacks table, having a weirdly intense karaoke contest against Seven, a clone with eyes the colour of ice and a personality to match – unless you were discussing puppies, music, or the concept of puppies making music. The two of them were jamming it to Loidvoca’s latest single.

Hordak took a sip of his drink, enjoying the feeling of bubbles against his tongue and Entrapta’s proximity as she leaned against him, nibbling on tiny snacks and occasionally making a remark to her recorder. He spied Catra and Adora dancing longingly at each other. He didn’t know that one could dance longingly, but he couldn’t find a better term for what the two were doing. A twist here, an outstretched hand there, a hesitant step forward elsewhere…

“Are they still at it?” Entrapta raised her eyebrows. “I have a whole drawer of tapes dedicated to their relationship.”

“How long do you think it will take them to kiss?”

“According to my estimations?” Out came the holo-pad. “About two point one seven millennia.”

He laughed, setting down his glass. “I would round it up to three.”

_“Four thousand and seventy-five point three three three eight four,”_ Imp supplied from where it sat on Hordak’s lap and munched on a butterbat. It was addicted to the tiny sweet pastries and would not cease consumption unless they were taken away from it and hidden behind lock and key. Neither Hordak nor Entrapta could blame it, though; after months of development, the end result was definitely worth the wait.

Suddenly, Hordak spied a flash of green near the stage. Green, then black, then yellow as a perfect imitation of Dandelion watched the karaoke contest with a half amused and half disgusted expression.

Double Trouble.

He sighed, looking down at Imp.

“Imp, move,” he told it.

_“No.” _It stuck its tongue out at him.

“Move.”

_“No.”_

“Imp.”

_“No.”_

Entrapta giggled.

He rolled his eyes at the two of them. “I am warning you.”

It stuck its tongue out at him once more and continued eating, crumbs raining all over his dress.

He scratched his cheek, thinking.

“…Fruit gummies.”

The effect was immediate; Imp shot into the air like a tiny arrow and zoomed towards the snacks table with a cry of “FUIT GUMMY.” Hordak muttered a quick excuse and left to pursue the shapeshifter before the little menace came back.

Entrapta watched him go, trying to slip between the guests without his wings smacking anyone. She idly wondered where he was going, but decided that recording the social experiment happening all around her was more important. Wow, Frosta was going absolutely ham on that shortbread. Next to her, Scorpia was laughing with Bow over a plate of canapes.

A smile bloomed on her lips as she watched her friends chat. Scorpia deserved friends who appreciated her for who she was, not just for what she did for them. She was a wonderful girl with a heart full of love and Entrapta’s own heart filled with warmth as she watched that love being reciprocated.

“You go, Pincers,” she muttered, stuffing another tiny cupcake into her mouth. It tasted divine – the couple they ordered them from did a magnificent job.

“Hi, Entrapta.”

She jumped, pulled out of her headspace, and looked around until she spotted Adora sitting next to her.

“Oh, hi Adora!” she replied, setting her plate aside. “What’s up? Enjoying the party?”

The Princess of Power smiled at her, nodding. “I do, yes. Listen, can I kidnap you for a second?”

Entrapta blinked. “Metaphorically speaking?”

“What? Oh, yes, of course. Sorry. Metaphorically speaking, yes.”

“Then sure,” she stood up, following her friend to where the other Princesses were gathered a little off to the side of the main party.

As they walked, she spied Silke leaning against a wall in a magnificent layered coral gown, sipping a flute of peach soda and whispering something to Dandelion. He pointed at Catra and the two of them burst out laughing. Roasting the cat’s fashion choices, no doubt. Dandy waved at her cheerfully, grinning like a happy child, his golden eyes shining with joy.

Glimmer was the first to break away from the gathering, nodding to the other Queen.

“Congratulations on the big day, Entrapta,” she smiled. “The ceremony was beautiful.”

Entrapta sighed happily, the memory making her heart do something scientifically impossible but extremely pleasant. “I know! I’ve heard people say that your wedding day is the happiest day of your life, but I always thought they were exaggerating a bit. Turns out they weren’t!” She threw her hands in the air, lifting herself on her hair. “If anything, they were understating!”

“Yes, er,” the other Princesses exchanged a look she couldn’t quite decipher. Frosta cleared her throat awkwardly, brushing crumbs off her outfit. “Listen,” she lowered her voice, “if you want us to get you out of here, you just say the word. You don’t have to do this.”

Surprise struck her like a bolt of lightning. “What?”

“We mean,” Adora quickly jumped into the conversation, “I know what Hordak is like, and if he’s making you do this against your will, just, I don’t know, blink twice and we’ll take care of the rest.”

“What are you talking about?” Entrapta lowered herself back to the ground, an odd feeling writhing in her gut.

“This guy destroyed Salineas,” Mermista told her, the tone of her voice akin to one used to address children. “He is not to be trusted, Entrapta. You should not hang out around him. Hordak is a monster.”

Glimmer swallowed nervously; the other girls weren’t handling the conversation as diplomatically as she would have preferred – bringing up the destruction of Salineas and outright calling the newly crowned King of Dryl a monster was dangerously close to breaking the neutrality rule of the event. Neither past nor current transgressions were to be brought up! All they wanted to check was that Entrapta wasn’t being tricked or forced into anything. She seemed genuinely happy, but one never knew.

“And okay, I know you two have been working together for a while now,” Perfuma adopted a similar voice to Mermista, evidently trying to be diplomatic, “but I – we think that you may not know, or understand, everything about him. I mean, you _have_ spent a lot of time on Beast Island while he was out destroying our kingdoms.”

Entrapta’s eyes darkened dangerously. “Oh?”

Mermista groaned, as if frustrated. “Girl, he’s the bad guy here, don’t you remember? He’s the one who tried to get Horde Prime to Etheria in the first place. Do you have any idea how many war crimes he’s responsible for?”

“Yeah!” Frosta spoke up. “He’s a colonizer!”

“Conqueror,” Perfuma quietly corrected her. “Colonizer is a different thing.”

“The point is,” Adora pinched the bridge of her nose. They weren’t helping, “we just want to know if you’re happy – genuinely happy with him. I know him, I know what he can be like, so if you…”

“If I what?”

The space they were standing in suddenly turned colder. Even Frosta felt a chill run up her spine as she quickly hid behind Glimmer, eyes widening when Entrapta’s expression changed from a polite smile into something darker, more terrifying.

Of course, none of them have ever seen Entrapta angry; they simply never bothered to know her well enough to see her that way. All they cared about was the weird geek-Princess’s tech. Build us a bunch of robots. Say things that make sense. Stop rambling. Be quiet. Stop wandering away. Focus on the task at hand. Do this. Be that. Blah blah blah.

Her mask was in Scorpia’s handbag, and Scorpia was across the room, showing Cyan how she could light a lightbulb with her powers. There was no mask, no barrier standing between the Princess Alliance and the fury of the Queen of Dryl.

“Do you think I’m an idiot?” Entrapta lifted herself to tower over them, a spider against a gaggle of colourful butterflies. “Is that what you think I am? Some stupid, socially clueless woman who would follow a monster right into his lair if he promised her science? Do you think that I’m blind? That I would go head-first into danger without assessing the situation beforehand? That I don’t know the man I took for a lab partner? Is that what you think I am? An empty-headed damsel in need of rescuing?”

All robots in the room looked up from their duties to stare at them, their purple eyes flickering red every once in a while.

“I invited you here today because I consider most of you my friends.” Her gaze slid over each Princess, stopping briefly on Bow, to finally rest on Glimmer. “I specified that this is neutral ground, that all weapons and grudges should be left at the door. This is the only reason why Catra is allowed to be here.”

Adora looked away guiltily.

“E-Entrapta,” Glimmer stuttered out, taking a step back to escape the Queen’s shadow. “I-It’s not like that! We didn’t mean…”

“I know what you meant,” she interrupted her, “and I understand that, up until the arrival of Horde Prime, we used to pretty much be enemies, but first of all,” a tendril of hair rose poked Glimmer in the nose, “times change. People change. And second of all,” another poke that sent her stumbling backwards, “I have, once again, specifically requested this to be neutral ground.”

“But this is different!” Perfuma burst out, stomping her foot. “He has killed people! He’s horrible! You just don’t understand!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the chill that surrounded the Queen of Dryl deepened, sending goosebumps racing across the skin of every member of the Princess Alliance. Entrapta’s eyes narrowed.

“Perfuma,” her voice was calm, eerily so, making the Princess shiver, “tell me, how many of my robots have you and the Alliance killed since I joined the Horde?”

She blinked, mouth hanging open, unable to choke out a word.

“You don’t know, didn’t bother to count,” Entrapta told her. “I do not know how many people fell from Hordak’s hand or the hands of soldiers following his orders. I don’t know how many lives Catra is to blame for, either, but I don’t come waltzing into Bright Moon to criticize Adora for keeping her around.”

“I-“ Adora started, but a tendril of hair thwapped her lips closed.

“I don’t know and, honestly?” Entrapta shrugged. “I don’t care. I didn’t know any of these people. They were insignificant to me or my experiments. For all I know, they could have been a thousand times worse than him. The same cannot be said for all my robots you’ve killed ever since I joined the Horde, but they were only slightly dearer to me than my fellow living beings, and that’s because I created them. Now,” her hair lowered her to the ground, hands folded behind her back, “I acknowledge that you and I have different sets of data about Hordak, but let me tell you something about him. Can I tell you about him or would you rather prefer me to keep quiet or,” cue (h)air quotes, “say things that make sense?”

As she was speaking, Adora’s gaze fell on the red First Ones’ crystal embedded in her armour. Could she be influenced by corruption of some sort? After all…

Entrapta’s fingers brushed against the crystal as she guessed the other’s train of thought.

“You think that he is deceiving me,” she stated, drawing the ceremonial cloak tighter around herself. “You really don’t know him, do you? Let me enlighten you, then, since I think that I’m not the one here who doesn’t understand.”

The Princesses all stared at her, rendered motionless by this side of normally cheerful Entrapta. None of them uttered a word or even looked like she was considering doing so.

“The truth is,” Entrapta chuckled at the irony of what she was about to say, “that this _war criminal_ of yours has treated me with more dignity and respect than any of you! I know of his actions, believe you me, because he _told_ me his plans. Willingly. Explained every detail like I was his equal, listened to my feedback and, after we began to trust each other, began coming to me for advice. Not once did he think to silence me or hold me back. Called me by my name, too, not _geek Princess_ or whatever.”

Mermista looked away, chewing on her lower lip.

“He is the most brilliant scientist I have ever met,” Entrapta carried on, smiling when she looked at the band around her finger – made of octranite, like her mask. “In a couple of weeks, we achieved more than I did alone in years of hard work! Sure, he did blow up a couple of villages, but that’s why I like him! He’s a real tactical mastermind and a genius engineer. Have you _seen_ his robots?” She sighed dreamily, swooning backwards only to be caught by her hair, straightening up a moment later to continue speaking.

“He is respectful, too, if grumpy at times, but he understands me. When I go off tangent for half an hour, he doesn’t shut me up, but listens and offers his insights about the matter. The things he says are so fascinating that, when it is _his_ turn to go off tangent about the genetic makeup of a species five galaxies away, I do the same. He bothered to get to know me, too; he knows that certain sounds and textures make me uncomfortable, so he took the time to learn these things and work this knowledge into the suit and mask he made for me. He treats me like a normal person, not like a freak who needs to be kept on a leash like a dog.”

Perfuma froze when she felt the Queen’s eyes on her. It made her feel like a specimen lying dissected on a table under the light of white surgical lamps.

“Now,” Entrapta waved a hand dismissively, her voice dripping with sickeningly sweet sarcasm, “I don’t know – maybe this is considered a compliment in Plumeria. After all, dogs are animals and animals are part of nature and stuff, but I personally felt offended when you did that, ‘Fumey.”

“I... I didn't..."

"Yes you did. And another thing-"

~~~

Meanwhile, Double Trouble let out a diabolical cackle over a flute of lemonade.

“Wow,” they wiped their eyes, “your wife is spilling some delicious tea this fine evening. This drama is simply delightful.”

Hordak nodded stiffly, having set his glass on the table to avoid crushing it in his fist, teeth grit underneath a calm exterior.

“Kept on a leash like a dog,” he growled, making a nearby robot scurry away in terror. “Double Trouble, you have an eye for design. Would you convert Plumeria into a training ground for robots or a giant garden for Dandelion?”

They rubbed their chin, thinking. “Hmm. Well, I would say the latter, simply because it’s less effort. I mean, if you go for a training ground and change your mind halfway, you will have to do a _ton_ of landscaping to get it back into shape. Personally, I think that it's large enough for you to go with both.”

“Maybe,” he hummed, idly twisting the ring on his finger. “Did you retrieve what I asked you to?”

“Of course,” they purred, reaching into the pocket of their glittery outfit to pull out a single grey cube and the miniature particle condenser. “I am a bastard of my word, aren’t I?”

Hordak nodded, taking the items and handing them a satchel of coins. “Second half of your payment, as agreed.”

“Thank you, darling,” the shapeshifter secreted it in the folds of their fur coat, “and thank you for inviting me. I would have found my way in anyway, but I appreciate the gesture and recommend myself for the future if you are ever in need of a professional.”

“We will keep you in mind,” the King of Dryl shook their hand. “Enjoy the rest of the evening.”

“Oh, I have every intention to do so.” Their gaze moved beyond him, resting on a figure in a spectacular coral gown leaning against a wall not too far away. They smiled. “Pray, who is this marvellous being standing over there?”

Hordak turned to see who they were referring to. “Who, Silke?” He raised his eyebrows. “They are a tailor, textile engineer, and a ruthless fashion critic. If you need to send someone into a mental breakdown over the shade of their socks, you go to them. Or him. Silke uses both he/him and they/them, says that gender is an accessory at best and, quote, shackles for his muse at worst.”

“Well said,” Double Trouble nodded sagely, then clapped their hands in excitement. “Oh, I simply must become acquainted with this wonderful individual. Excuse me.” Aaaaand they were already across the room.

Hordak watched the two interact for a moment, memorising anything that could be relevant to his and Entrapta’s social experiment, and quietly snuck out of the room.

~~~

The party was winding down as Entrapta leaned against Hordak’s side, her mask over her face and noise absorbers set to 40%, and watched the cupcake tower intently. The explosive cupcake still hasn’t been taken, and she was beginning to worry that the poor thing would survive the day unexploded.

“Maybe I should have put it closer to the edge of the plate,” Hordak wondered, similarly concerned.

“Nah,” she shook her head. “It would have been too obvious that way. No, it’s in a good place, we just need to be a touch more patient with it.”

“If you say so.”

“Ahem,” a polite cough made the two of them look to the side, at a short, lanky, bespectacled man with a mop of chestnut-brown hair, prematurely grey at the temples, and dressed in a simple yet stylish grey robe with a golden trim. He regarded them with tired blue eyes framed by faint dark circles. “Your Majesties, may I have a word?”

Entrapta sat up straighter. “Hey, Viki. Enjoying the party?”

He nodded, smiling as he sat beside her. “I am, thank you for inviting me.”

Sitting on the other side of his wife, Hordak’s ears perked up at the name. So that was the infamous Vikiford.

“I would like to once more congratulate you on your marriage,” he carried on, bowing his head. “The two of you are an excellent match for each other if I may say so.”

“Thank you,” Hordak responded in a polite yet cool manner. “Entrapta is the most brilliant person I know, and I consider myself lucky to be with her.”

She beamed up at him, a tendril of hair wrapping around his hand. “And you are the best grumpy goth space bat I never knew I needed in my life until I broke into your lab.”

“I continue to be thankful for that fateful day,” he nodded, lifting the strands to his lips.

Viki smiled, then cleared his throat once more. “Entrap- I mean, your Majesty-“

“Just Entrapta,” Her Majesty replied.

“Entrapta,” he quickly corrected himself, rubbing the back of his head with evident embarrassment. “Once again, I thank you for inviting me, as I have been meaning to talk to you about something. I…” He bit his lip, then sighed. “I want to apologise.”

Entrapta’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. She lifted her mask. “Oh?”

“I mean,” Viki looked away, chewing on his lower lip. “Back when we were in college, I…” He sighed, took a deep breath, and started again. “In hindsight, some things I did and said weren’t exactly…” Another pause. “Fuck, I’ve been meaning to apologise earlier, but I didn’t know how to approach you and I was so busy back in Mystacor that I…” Yet another pause. A frustrated groan.

“The point,” he threw his hands in the air, “is that I was a complete and utter dick to you in college, either didn’t know how to bring it up after I figured out that I was a dick or was too chicken shit to even try, and I would like to use this fine evening as an opportunity to say that I am genuinely sorry for the way I treated you and your theories, which at the end of the day turned out to be correct while mine are currently writhing in the dirt and dying in agony.” A pause. “Metaphorically speaking, of course.”

“Oh,” Entrapta blinked a couple of times. This isn’t exactly what she expected to hear from him. “Wow.”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “I, um, I like to think that I changed since college, hopefully for the better. This matter has been bugging me for literal years and I’m glad that I got to get it off my chest.” A wide smile appeared on his freckled features. “You’re brilliant, Entrapta, and you,” he nodded at Hordak, shrinking back a little just in case, “a-are indeed lucky to be with her. She deserves someone who listens to all those absolutely mind-bendingly genius theories of hers.”

Once the initial shock passed, the Queen of Dryl smiled a smile radiant like the rising sun, and grabbed Viki’s hand to shake it vigorously.

“Apologies accepted, you doofus,” she laughed, and he laughed too, relieved out of his mind. “what are you going to do now?”

“I don’t know,” he confessed, adjusting his glasses. “I’m thinking of switching to archaeology. There’s a field trip to the Crimson Waste planned for next week and I think I’ll tag along. I would love to read some of your research, though, if you would be willing to share.”

Entrapta nodded happily. “Sure thing. I’d love to be correspondence pals with you!”

Suddenly there was a loud bang! and everyone in the room collectively looked at the snacks table, where Catra stood with her face completely covered in #fdf3ff icing and holding a steaming bottom half of a cupcake in one hand.

Hordak laughed while Entrapta excitedly reported the event to her trusty recorder.

Yep, definitely the best day of her life.

~~~

After the party was over and all the guests finally left the premises, Hordak guided his wife (wife! She was his wife! Officially!) to the front courtyard.

“Can I look yet?” she was all but bouncing after him, her eyes covered by a bandana (she had tried to peek through her hair.)

“Not yet,” he replied, walking with a cheerful spring in his step. “Just a little longer.”

“Now?”

“No.”

“Now?”

“No.”

“Now?”

“You sound like Imp.”

The creature, perched on top of Emily, stuck its tongue out at him.

“How much longer?” she whined. “It feels like we’ve been walking for EVER!”

He raised an eyebrow, more to himself than her. “It has only been forty-three steps since I told you to cover your eyes, starlight.”

“Well, how many more?” she placed two strands of hair on her hips, probably to look more serious and intimidating. Instead, she looked adorable.

“Count down from seventy-five by threes and we’ll get there when you’re done.”

This time it was her turn to stick her tongue out at him. He laughed.

“I'm joking, take off the blindfold now.”

Entrapta did so and gasped when her eyes landed on the large, beautiful machine standing in the middle of her courtyard.

“Hordak,” she uttered, eyed wide and reflecting the starlit sky above her, “is this…”

“The Alliance’s First Ones’ ship? Yes.” He grinned, radiating pride. “I had it stolen just for you.”

She turned to him, mouth hanging open and her hands already shaking from excitement. The surprise was an absolute nightmare to keep secret, but the look of wonder on her face made it all worth it.

“Everything has already been carried inside and all robots equipped with appropriate protocols,” Hordak told her. “I remembered your wish to explore the Known Universe and couldn’t think of a better idea for a honeymoon, so,” he shrugged, then bowed gracefully, gesturing at the walkway leading into the depths of the ship. “Your carriage awaits, my Queen.”

Entrapta’s shriek of pure and undiluted delight echoed in the night around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTE 1: Yes, Loidvoca is Etherian Vocaloid. These doofuses were jamming it to Miku.
> 
> NOTE 2: Noah fence to the protags of the show, but Hordak really does treat her better, and I'm still kinda angry at Perfuma for putting a leash on her back in S1. This tea needed to be spilled, and some people need to remember just how morally grey our favourite Princess (now Queen) is.
> 
> NOTE 3: I LOVE MAKING UP WORLDBUILDING FOR THIS SHOW.
> 
> NOTE 4: Most of Twisty's speech was borrowed from an online template and edited to fit Dryl. I haven't attended a wedding since my age was in the single digits so I had no clue what to make him say.
> 
> NOTE 5: The ceremonial cloaks are for the, well, ceremony only and our royal couple have probably ditched them after the party was over. The crowns are optional since yeah, they're A Symbol, but the majority of Drylan royals over the years didn't bother with them because they got in the way of science.
> 
> NOTE 6: I will eventually post some sketches of the happy couple, probably at the end of the final chapter (which will be E-rated nudge nudge wink wink.)


	7. Chapter 7

Bright Moon was dark and quiet by the time Glimmer teleported her friends back from the wedding. It happened to coincide with sleepover night, so everyone collectively decided that they would just crash at her place after the exhausting celebrations.

“That could have gone better,” Adora rubbed the back of her neck, cringing at the memory of Entrapta’s scathing words.

“Mhm,” Bow cast a worried glance in the general direction of Dryl. “Do you think she’s very mad at us? I’ve never seen that look on her face before.”

Glimmer shook her head. Entrapta was a good friend, and it was all one big, poorly phrased misunderstanding. They should have chosen their words more carefully. “You know, I think we deserved the scolding.”

Next to her, Perfuma stumbled towards the gardens, pale and wide-eyed, tripping over her own feet and muttering something about meditation and an earth that wasn’t dead.

Mermista cast a glance in her direction and nudged Sea Hawk, tearing his attention away from the pocketful of tiny snacks he seemed to have stolen.

“Make sure that she’s alright, will you?” she whispered.

He nodded wordlessly, did an elaborate salute, and followed the Princess of Plumeria.

As he was leaving, Mermista resumed the conversation, crossing her arms with a huff.

“Maybe we did deserve some of it,” she scowled. “I still hate the bastard, though.”

“Yeah!” Ice gauntlets crystallised around Frosta’s hands. “We should go back there and make him pay for his crimes! Beat him to a pulp!”

Glimmer pinched the bridge of her nose. “I agree, but we talked about this; now that he’s officially part of Dryl’s royal family, we cannot make a move against him without starting another war.” After two years of relative peace and quiet from the former warlord, another war was the last thing she wanted, even if she still wanted to bash his face in.

“Do you think he got hitched just for that?” Catra suggested, eyebrows furrowing. It would make sense, and Entrapta was the only Princess who would agree. It’s what her past self would have done to guarantee herself immunity. Then again, given how stupidly over the moons he was for the Princess, that might not have been his only reason.

To her surprise, Bow shook his head.

“No,” he said. “And even if, that was not his primary reason.”

“He’s shit at lying,” Catra remembered, snapping her fingers. “No, you’re right, Cupid. If he had any ulterior motives, it would have shown. He has this big evil grin,” she attempted to demonstrate, raising her claws for extra ferocity, “which I always saw when he was up to something. This man is an open book.”

“And from what I’ve read throughout the ceremony,” Adora chimed in, “is that he’s-“

“-an absolute idiot in love,” Glimmer finished, rolling her eyes. “Smitten. Lovestruck. Over the moons. Netossa and Spinerella look at each other like that all the time.”

“It’s kind of disgusting,” Mermista wrinkled her nose. “I can’t believe that he’s capable of love.”

“He did go after Entrapta to Beast Island,” Adora pointed out. “You don’t know what that is, but people who go there don’t come back. It’s a hellscape.” She shuddered.

“So? She was a valuable asset at the time.”

“Valuable enough to risk his own life to get her back?”

“He wouldn’t have completed the portal without her.”

“Whoa, hang on,” Glimmer raised her hands to make the two slow down before another argument broke out. “Aren’t you forgetting about something? Entrapta wasn’t some kind of prisoner back then; she helped him out willingly, left us as soon as she was promised better tech.”

“Guilty,” Catra raised a claw.

“Aren’t we forgetting that she did as much damage as him?”

“She didn’t destroy Salineas,” Mermista pointed out, voice growing angrier. “Look, I don’t usually hold grudges but it’s my kingdom. My people. It’s been two years and I haven’t seen him answer for his crimes against all of us.”

Glimmer fixed her with a look. “True, he did, but so did Catra.”

The magicat in question bristled up, opening her mouth to protest before thinking better of it. No, she was going to continue to take responsibility for her actions. Adora told her to do that, Ms Zorya (her therapist) told her to do that, and maybe it would make it easier for her to sleep at night. She wasn’t about to let a year and a half of therapy go down the drain just because of her pride. She was making progress, damnit!

“No, you’re right,” she sighed. “I’m as much to blame as he is, but if you losers gave me a chance to change for the better,” she swept her arm in an arc, “then maybe let him lock himself in a lab with his wifey and do science until they forget we all exist.”

A pause.

“Bleugh, I can’t believe I just said that.”

Adora looked away guiltily. She had fought tooth and nail to convince the Alliance to give Catra a chance of redemption. Heck, Hordak and Entrapta might have built the portal, but Catra was the one to pull the lever. She was the one to send Entrapta to Beast Island just as she was about to inform Hordak that the portal was dangerous. He has always been a bit of a shut-in even during her days in the Horde, and Catra did say that getting him out on the field was her idea.

“I-“ she choked out, “I think I agree.”

Frosta’s eyes widened. “Whaaaaaaat?!” she exclaimed.

“Look, we talked about this already,” Adora ran her fingers through her hair. Her feet hurt; she couldn't wait to be back in bed. “Everyone deserves a chance at redemption. Remember Scorpia? Kyle? Lonnie? Rogelio? All the clones? _Me?” _

Frosta looked down on her ice gauntlets, allowing them to melt off her hands.

“Adora is right,” Bow placed a hand on her shoulder. “Remember what the Council said back when the clones first woke up? They didn’t know any other way of life. Prime had them programmed in such a way that they were bent on conquering the Known Universe for him. Hordak wasn’t an exception from this. This does not excuse all the things he did, but now that he and Entrapta aren’t throwing any homicidal robots at us, maybe we shouldn’t initiate any conflict either.”

Five, Glimmer counted mentally. This was the fifth time they were having this conversation. She didn’t like the idea of letting Hordak off the hook, either, but he did save them all from Prime and hasn't caused any mayhem since he and Entrapta left for Dryl. She had only swapped a couple of words with him during the party, but he seemed civil enough, too. Respectful and well-spoken, even.

At least he respected the neutral ground rule, she thought bitterly, casting a look in the direction Perfuma had wandered off. The Princess of Plumeria had a good heart, but some matters had to be approached more carefully than how they were handled back in Dryl. They really did deserve Entrapta going off at them.

The goal of the conversation was to make sure that she was happy with him and, judging by her words, body language, and the disgustingly lovestruck looks they gave each other, she was as happy as a morally flexible scientist could be.

“Entrapta will be okay,” she assured the present company, reminding them of the reason behind the unfortunate conversation. “He loves her, she loves him, and even if he does something bad, she’s an adult and can take care of herself.”

“True,” Catra winced at the memory of seeing the bubbly scientist tearing a robot apart with just her hair. Sometimes her nightmares showed her other things Entrapta could have done to her, could still do to her. “Speaking as someone who knows the two of them well enough, Entrapta is the scarier one.”

“So, to sum it up,” Glimmer clapped her hands, happy that the matter was settled for the time being. It was definitely going to be brought up again, but hopefully she’ll be less exhausted at the time. “Entrapta is as safe as can be, Hordak hasn’t been causing any problems, the food was great, and we’re all going to sleep now because my eyes are closing on their own accord.”

Frosta nodded, yawning.

Mermista mumbled something before nodding as well.

Adora draped herself over Catra’s shoulders, burying her face in her fluffy hair with a happy “mff.”

“I’ll get Sea Hawk and Perfuma,” Bow said and jogged off to look for them.

Just as everything was looking up, a sudden cry pierced the evening air.

“My Queen!” Glimmer jumped when she heard a guard’s voice behind her. He was visibly out of breath. “It’s gone!”

She whirled around, eyes wide. “What’s gone?”

The guard bent down to whisper in her ear.

“What?!” she exclaimed. “How?!”

More whispering. The other three Princesses and Catra shared a concerned look.

“When did you receive the report? Has anyone seen anything?” Glimmer’s voice was rising, growing more frantic. “It couldn’t have just vanished!”

“What happened?” Adora asked.

“The First Ones’ ship is gone,” Glimmer told her, chest heaving with quickened breaths. “It just disappeared while we were at the wedding. The guards have no idea what happened.”

Frosta gasped. “Oh no! Who could have done this? I’m gonna beat them up!” Out came the ice gauntlets again.

Glimmer froze. She looked at Mermista, who looked at Adora, who in turn looked at Catra, who bit her lip.

“I don’t know anyone more nuts about First Ones’ tech than them,” she shrugged.

Glimmer’s cry of frustration echoed in the night around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. Long time no see, eh?
> 
> Yeah... I haven't been doing too well as of late - my mental health's been hardcore kicking my ass and several other things. I originally wanted this to be a part of the final chapter, but I didn't want you guys to think I abandoned this fic. I just need a bit more time, is all. I still want to finish! I'm not planning to just leave it, but I just need to refill my spell slots if you know what I'm trying to say.
> 
> Thank you for all the love and support; we wouldn't have gotten this far in the story if it weren't for you!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The wedding night, after months of waiting, is finally here. I'm sorry for taking so long - it's been rough but by FUCK I'M SO HAPPY TO HAVE THIS OVER AND DONE WITH. I hope that you enjoy. I hope it was worth the wait. This fucking chapter is 8k words long. 8k. I wrote fics shorter than this. Holy fuck.
> 
> Just as promised, you'll find some sketches at the end. It's been a hell of a journey, and I can't thank y'all enough for sticking through it with me.

“Do you think they noticed that it’s gone?” Entrapta asked as the ship gained height. Between the two of them, they managed to hack into it and make it fly wherever they wanted without any need for She-Ra’s tech.

“Probably,” Hordak hummed, rummaging through one of the boxes for Imp’s stuffed bat. It was a relic from the times he had to allocate it a separate bed. It cried and whined when he refused to let it sleep with him, and the plushie was the only acceptable substitute. Even after all those years, Imp was still attached to the thing, worn out as it was from countless nights of snuggles and occasional biting. “Say, what is it with you and Imp liking bats so much?”

“They think that they’re scary but in reality they’re adorable,” Entrapta explained, looking away from the window to smile at him. “Kind of like you.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not adorable.” This was an argument they had regularly, and he kept denying it out of principle more than anything else.

“I have precisely one hundred thousand, three hundred and fifty-one words of research stating the contrary.”

_“Adorable,”_ Imp agreed from its perch on top of Emily, who beeped affirmatively. _“Soft!”_

“Yes, yes,” he finally managed to locate the stuffed bat, holding it up. “Here is your soft.”

_“Soft!”_ the plushie was gone from his hand in an instant. Imp alighted on top of Emily, hugging it tightly and letting out happy chirps while Emily, seeing that her sibling was ready for bed, walked off in the direction of one of the sleeping quarters.

Entrapta giggled, seeing their reflections in the window as she gazed at the Universe. Millions, trillions of stars and planets winked at her from the outside. It has been two years since Etheria left Despondos, but she still spent about an hour daily (her schedule permitting) stargazing to soak it all in.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered, then raised her voice slightly to address Hordak. “You know, back when I was here for the first time, I was so busy planning your rescue that I didn’t really pay much attention to all this.” Space. The Known Universe. She has always dreamed of seeing it. Ever since Hordak made her aware that they weren’t alone in the universe, her dreams were filled with constellations and racing comets, meteors carrying alien metals and rivers of stardust leading to destinations beyond her wildest imaginings. And now, at last, it was all within her reach. “Now that I have the time to study it, though…”

When Hordak moved to stand beside her, hands behind his back, she leapt to wrap her arms around him. Her Hordak. Her lab partner. Her husband. He was the one who made it all possible.

“Thank you,” she choked out into the crook of his neck, voice quivering with emotion. “I never thought that I would have this.”

“Neither did I,” he confessed, returning the embrace and smiling into her hair. “I thought that I would live and die under the starless sky of Despondos, alone and cut off from those I considered my family. I had long given up the hope of seeing the stars again by the time you entered my life. This,” he swept his arm in an arc, indicating the view outside of the window, “is all thanks to you.”

Entrapta blinked, pulling away a little. That contradicted her internal monologue a bit.

“Without you, I would have never opened the portal, never learned that there was more to my life than servitude, and the Heart of Etheria would have never been activated, thus attracting Horde Prime’s attention to us and making him pull the planet out of the shadow dimension like we had planned.” He decided to gloss over the parts that did _not_ go like they had planned. “None of this would have happened if it weren’t for you.” Pushing her mask a little bit back, he planted a kiss on her forehead. “My hero.”

“Oh,” Entrapta felt her chest tighten as a blush warmed her cheeks. What Hordak just did was _incredibly_ illegal. He had absolutely no right to do that, and deserved to go to Bastard Bat Jail forever for being such a goddamn fucking sweetheart, and her internal monologue rarely used swear words, so she really meant it! “I… Thanks.”

“My pleasure,” he moved away to instead approach the console. “Shall I set the course for Sector 7543-A while we retire for the night? We could unpack tomorrow.”

She nodded, eyes glued to him even as they passed a massive, swirling galaxy. “Can’t believe we’re really going. You know, when you first offered to take me there, I half assumed that it was just one of these cheesy nothings lovers said to each other, like _“I’d take down the moons for you”_ or something.” She smiled to herself, then sighed contentedly.

Hordak looked up from the control panel, frowning.

“Of course I really meant it,” he said, frowning adorably. “I never make promises I cannot keep. I couldn’t give you the moons, though.” He rubbed his chin, ears drooping a little in thought. “No, removing any of Etheria’s moons would have catastrophic effects for the planet’s inhabitants, disruption of the ocean tides being the least serious of them.”

Entrapta’s hair walked her away from the window and closer to him as she sat cross-legged in mid-air, her chin propped up on her hands, listening attentively.

“I could give you _a_ moon, though, I suppose,” Hordak scratched his head, ruining the remaining gel work which survived the party. “It would take an immensely powerful shrink ray to make it happen, and we would need something to pull it out of the planet’s gravitational field. I was thinking of stealing a smaller one from some relatively young gas giant, but its gravitational field would be too great, and you deserve something far more worthy than a piece of rock orbiting some pitiful planetoid…”

She resisted the urge to giggle, biting her lip.

“I know!” he snapped his fingers suddenly, ears perking up and wings flexing behind him. “I will get you a giant geode moon. Thousands of tons of crystals hidden beneath the planet’s surface. If we shrank it enough to transport it to Dryl, your mining machinery would let us break through the rock in no time at all!”

Entrapta lit up, gasping at the idea. “Oooooh, that would be amazing!” she clapped her hands. “Crystals, metal, so much to study! We absolutely need to work on a shrink ray this powerful.” Her mind sprang into action, loose strands of hair drawing up schematics in mid-air. “It would have to retain its size after shrinking, but its mass…”

“We could use some parts of the particle condenser,” Hordak suggested, immediately warming up to the idea. His heart was racing, mind alight with excitement and new ideas already beginning to form. “If we took…”

Suddenly, his vision switched off and he stumbled forward, grasping the edge of the control panel as his knees momentarily buckled.

“Wow,” Entrapta caught him before he crashed, snapping out of her science daze immediately. “Got too worked up?”

Hordak rubbed his head, wincing. He hadn’t passed out this time, thankfully. As usual, his garbage body was determined to ruin his life even on this most beautiful of days.

“A little,” he agreed. “I think the exhaustion is catching up with me.”

“Mhm,” she nodded understandingly. Something was tugging at her brain - a feeling that she has forgotten about something important, but she ignored it for the time being. “Can you stand now?”

He shook his head, feeling his legs tremble. A small blade of pain was stabbing stubbornly at his ribs, dulled by the painkillers but annoying nonetheless. “Not… Not yet. Give me a moment.”

The blackouts were less frequent since Entrapta made him the suit, but they still happened – especially when his organism was under some sort of pressure. His wedding, party, and several science nerd-outs weren’t too big of a pressure compared to, say, an attack of a crazed inhabitant of Beast Island, but it seemed exhausting enough to cut his legs from under him.

“Will do,” a tendril of hair reached for the nearest crate and pulled it closer, giving him somewhere to sit (the captain’s seat was rather incompatible with his wings) as Entrapta formed the rest of her hair into an approximation of a chair, silently puzzling over this small, insistent voice that was trying to remind her of something. It had something to do with Hordak, so it hand to be important.

Tiny gears spun furiously in her mind as she considered him before they ground to a screeching halt, politely reminding her of what this very important something she had completely forgotten about in the wedding craze was.

Hordak looked up weakly as he heard her curse. She dove across the room, hair already reaching for several boxes at once, rummaging through them as she played back recording after recording to remember where did she stash _that bloody thing…_

“What is the matter?” he asked, puzzled by the sudden urgency. “Do you need help in finding something?”

“Oh, nononononono,” she replied quickly, flipping the mask over her face while tearing open another crate. “You stay where you are. It’s a surprise, anyway.”

He raised his palms in mock surrender as she continued to scour their various belongings and equipment in search of, well, whatever in the Abyss she was searching for.

“I packed it, I remember I did,” she muttered to herself, playing back another recording. Nope, that one just detailed on where she put the M-425 cores. Ah, damnit. “Did you see a steel box, dark grey, about A5 format, 200mm by 150mm, 50mm thick?” she gestured with her hair to show him the dimensions.

“No, I don’t think so,” he scratched his head. “I would have remembered.”

“Good. You weren’t supposed to. Still, it does make it difficult to loca-“ she broke off with a triumphant “AH-HA!”, lifting the previously described item out of the depths of crate 15. With it in hand, she bounced up to him, lifted about a foot off the ground by her hair and grinning like an excited child as she lifted her mask.

“Ta-daa!” she cried, thrusting the box towards him. “Guess what finally passed the testing stage!”

Hordak eyed it curiously, taking it from her grasp. After unlocking, the box revealed five syringes filled with a clear liquid nestled safely in a sea of grey foam.

“Syringes,” he observed, raising his eyebrows.

“Containing…?” Entrapta leaned forward, wagging her eyebrows and biting her lip to keep her excited grin from spreading across her face like a Cheshire Bat’s.

“I don’t know,” he confessed, taking one out to examine it up close. “Starlight, we have so many projects and these don’t have labels on them. How am I supposed to know?”

She pouted, dropping to the floor. “You’re not even going to guess?”

“As much as I would love to learn the intricate machinations of that brilliant brain of yours, I’m afraid that I’m not a mind reader.” He replaced the syringe with a small smile. “Care to enlighten me?”

“Fine, fine,” she returned the smile, dropping the pouty façade. If he had no idea, all the better. “Right, so I’ve been analysing the DNA samples we took from Horde Prime and comparing them with your genetic material. I know that we put that project on hold, but it has been bugging me for a while now.”

“Mhm,” he nodded at her to continue, propping his chin up on his fist.

“Well, I tinkered with that a little bit, ran a couple of tests, and remember which genes are responsible for healing and tissue regeneration in chiropterians?”

“Oh?” His ears perked up, eyes widening a little. His wings flexed behind his back as he straightened up. “Yes. I am missing G452, G454, B022-1 and RN3, though.”

“You are, yeah,” she nodded. “We figured out how to extract them from his DNA, but any attempts at introducing them to your clones were unsuccessful.”

“I recall, yes.”

“Welllllll,” the tips of her hair began to curl and twist as she fought to contain her excitement. “I figured out why it was! The dosage was way too high and it sent the body into shock. It didn’t know what to do with so much new stuff, so it rejected it and sometimes shut down completely. I adjusted the dosage, added a couple of familiar bits to decrease the shock (I’ll send you the full write-up later if you remind me) and ran the tests again.”

Hordak gasped, his grip on the box tightening. “And… and it passed?”

“Each and every single one,” she announced proudly. “Which is weird because I could have never pulled this sort of thing off on an Etherian, but I guess chiropterians are different that way. Or chiropterian clones. I wonder if Prime made your DNA so easy to tinker with on purpose. Anyway, it turns out that, instead of just incorporating it all at once, we needed to take things slowly and incorporate it gradually in small dosages. Like hormone therapy, testosterone or estrogen shots and stuff if that helps you visualise it. Tiny bit by tiny bit.”

He set the box next to him to avoid dropping it. His hands trembled, his throat constricting. “Does that mean that…” No, it couldn’t be!

Entrapta threw her arms in the air, laughing. “We know how to treat your condition!”

Shock. Shock and disbelief. No, Hordak shook his head. There was no way that there was even a shred of hope for him. Clones were designed to not die unless they were killed, their regenerative abilities keeping them in prime condition to serve their lord and master for as long as they were needed. He had come to terms with his eventual death long ago, made peace with his decaying body as no attempt at cloning himself another one ever proved successful.

But now…

“Mind, it’s not a miracle cure,” Entrapta scratched her head, eyeing the box. “This is just our first shot at it, and it will take time until you feel any noticeable change; you should only take one a day to avoid overloading your organism. So far, the goal is to let you stand without your armour for over thirty seconds without falling over... Hordak?” She frowned, concerned. “Are you okay? You look kind of out of it. Are you going to faint again?”

Oh, Hordak was very much okay. He was perfectly aware of what she was saying, his ears registering her words and his mind filing them into the appropriate folders. He understood her words, his brain processed them, but the realisation of what they entailed was yet to sink in completely.

He took a long, deep, shuddering breath.

“Entrapta,” he choked out.

“Mhm?”

“You just did what I could not for over twenty years.”

“Well, _we_ did, technically. It was about 90% you, with me filling in the gaps.” She frowned, pointing a tendril of hair at him. “Don’t you underestimate your input in all this! We would have never made such a breakthrough without the groundwork you’ve laid down before we started this project together. Your knowledge of genetic engineering exceeds mine by _light-years._ All I did was rearrange some bits of the puzzle until it fit together.”

And just about then, the full implications of Entrapta’s breakthrough finally hit Hordak with the force of a meteor strike.

_Good stars…_

He shot forward, stumbling through the two or three steps separating them and wrapping his arms around her, his legs giving out from under him again as a sound that was equal parts a sob and a laugh tore out of his throat.

She caught him, for the second time that day, with a squeak of surprise.

“I’m not going to die,” he choked out, tears flooding his cheeks. “I’m not… I’m not…” He laughed, his whole frame trembling as he buried his face in the crook of her neck. “I’m…”

It didn’t matter that it wasn’t a miracle cure. It didn’t matter that he would have to inject himself with that stuff each day for the rest of his life. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t perfect.

It existed.

It was imperfect, but it existed, and the beauty of it was threatening to shatter him like glass.

He wasn’t going to die.

“Wow,” Entrapta manoeuvred a tendril of hair around his wings to rub his back comfortingly. “I… This is good, right? This is the good kind of crying?” He seemed happy but she and her lack of people-reading skills preferred to ask anyway.

“The good kind?” he repeated, pulling away, eyes wide and brighter than she’s ever seen before. His normally level voice was overflowing with joy like the weakness he felt just moments ago simply evaporated. “Entrapta, this is the best kind! I don’t even know what to say, I-“ he ran his hand through his tousled hair. “I… Stars, this means the world to me! I never thought…”

He wasn’t going to die.

He wasn’t going to die!

Hordak laughed. He laughed like never before. There were dark spots floating before his eyes, but he reckoned that they could go fuck themselves. They would not be there forever, and even if this joy that fluttered in his chest like a fiery bat would make him pass out for real, so what? There was a way out. There was finally a way out of this hellscape.

He wasn’t going to die!

Whatever Entrapta was about to say, as interesting and brilliant as it probably was, was instantly cut short when he pressed their lips together, wrapping his arms around her neck and embracing her as tightly as his still weakened limbs allowed him, willing her to feel at least a fraction of his happiness. He wished he could extract it from his heart, shining and golden like honey, like spun sugar, and present it to her, show her what a wonderful gift she has bestowed upon him.

He wasn’t going to die!

“I love you” he gasped out every time they broke apart for air. “I love you. I love you. I love you.” He wished he could say this a million times. A trillion times. Build a laser and engrave it into every of Etheria’s moons, rearrange the very stars so that they would proclaim his love to her every single night. “I…”

When they pulled apart for longer, Entrapta gazing up at him with flushed cheeks and stars in her eyes, beautiful in body and mind alike, all that was able to pass through Hordak’s throat was a single, strangled “thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she smiled, the sight frying some of his circuits. “More than welcome. We really should go to sleep now, though.”

He nodded, barely able to lift his head back up. Although his mind and soul were soaring, his body was a stronger breeze away from shutting down.

“Rest, yes,” he agreed, allowing her to lift him up. “Good… Good idea.”

~~~

The ship’s two sleeping quarters weren’t exactly the pinnacles of luxury. The décor was simple blues, whites and greys, the bed only marginally softer than the Horde-standard bunk Hordak remembered sleeping in, and the only other piece of furniture was a simple bedside table.

Still, the sight of it tore a gasp out of Entrapta’s throat, eyes widening as she took in the strange, alien living space. Her gaze slid past the minimalistic furniture as if it suddenly evaporated, for the only thing it registered was the ceiling.

The wide, transparent ceiling through which the whole universe was winking at her.

“I think that this can be switched off,” Hordak scratched his head, “but I do not know how. I say we leave it as it is.” He knew how much Entrapta loved the stars; he had no plans to take them away from her.

She nodded slowly, only partly registering his words. This was it; the end of the most beautiful day of her life. The clearest indication that it was all real; that it wasn’t a dream, daydream or simulation. She will fall asleep, and when she wakes up, the event will become a part of her past, cementing itself in her history for the rest of her days.

Everything since her first meeting with Hordak has led to this moment. Their work on the portal, the LUVD crystal, her unfortunate trip to Beast Island, lying in his arms in a nest of First Ones’ blankets, Horde Prime, that kiss, everything that happened afterwards.

Experiencing it was one thing; dealing with the reality of the said experience was something completely different.

“Wow,” she breathed, and now it was Hordak’s turn to catch her when suddenly her vision went all fuzzy and it was only thanks to his quick reflex and her hair catching her at the last second that she didn’t collapse.

“Are you alright?” Hordak managed to lead her to the bed. He barely had enough time to arrange his wings comfortably enough to sit before his legs gave out too. They kind of just flopped down on the covers, Entrapta blinking away the wooziness.

“Yeah,” she rubbed her eyes. “I think everything’s catching up to me too. Can we take care of the data on our social experiment tomorrow?” She yawned. “Science never sleeps, but this particular science wouldn’t mind breaking that rule.”

“Seconded,” a half sigh half chuckle left Hordak’s lips. He stretched, wincing at the cracks, and decided that he didn’t care about his wedding dress enough to fold it neatly before bed. “Rules are made to be broken; I have nothing against breaking this one.”

With the course of action established, he helped Entrapta out of her armour, asking once in a while about any potential upgrades or improvements she would like, and then allowed her to remove his outfit. The beautifully tailored black garment went on the floor, something which he suspected Silke will attempt to stab him for, but that was a problem for Future Hordak.

The Present Hordak, meanwhile, was warm and snug, the sheets covering him up to his waist to give the wings some room. That was fine by him, especially while he had one arm curled around Entrapta, a couple of loose strands of her hair weaving around his ring finger, fiddling with his wedding band.

“You know,” the newly crowned Queen of Dryl hummed, something he felt more than heard thanks to their proximity, “we haven’t slept together since Beast Island.”

He blinked, slightly taken aback. “Has it been that long?” It felt like entire lifetimes ago.

“Mhm. I mean, not that I mind!” She gestured with a lock of hair. “I like sleeping alone, and you might remember that I snore, and move around a lot, and you would have found out that I get really cold feet if I hadn’t slept in my boots back then, but this,” she shrugged, a light blush colouring her cheeks, “is rather nice, I think.”

Hordak felt an absolutely idiotic smile spread over his lips, and was unable to stop it.

“It _is_ rather nice,” he admitted, sighing with contentment. “I wouldn’t mind the cold feet, you know.”

“You wouldn’t?”

“Entrapta, would I have married you if I cared about something so trivial?”

“I dunno,” she shrugged, pressing her lips together to suppress a smile, “they do get really cold, and I’m talking Northern Reach cold if you catch my drift.”

Hordak rolled his eyes, unable to hold back a laugh. “I don’t give a damn how cold they are. _You_ _gave me life. _You are free to stick your cold feet on my back whenever you want.”

“And you gave me the universe,” she replied, a soft smile spreading on her lips. “I think that we’re even.”

They gazed at the space stretching over their heads in silence, each pondering the serum. Entrapta wondered whether it would be better to introduce it bit by bit to Hordak or apply the treatment to an incubating clone body, while Hordak still struggled to figure out what to do with the future he has suddenly been gifted with.

Neither of them knew who kissed whom first, closing what little space remained between them, but suddenly the universe stopped mattering as Hordak lifted himself up on his elbow, slipping his other hand around the small of Entrapta’s back to pull her against him, only breaking the contact between them to catch their breaths between kisses, Hordak’s red eyes blazing with love as he gazed down at the woman who was everything to him.

His lab partner.

His starlight.

His wife.

His Queen.

His Entrapta.

His brilliant, beautiful Entrapta.

He kissed her again, and again, her skin warm as he trailed kisses down her neck, feeling silky ribbons of hair wrap around him in a tight embrace, and Entrapta’s fingers tangled into his own hair to keep him from moving too far away. As if he wanted to. As if he could.

Her laughter vibrated against his lips, only to turn into a slightly squeaky moan when he found a particularly sensitive spot. Her fingers twitched in his hair, tightening their grip involuntarily.

“Good?” he murmured against her, suppressing an involuntary twinge of anxiety. If he messed this up, he would never forgive himself and probably fling himself out of the airlock immediately. “Please tell me if you want me to stop.”

Thankfully, he was reassured almost immediately by Entrapta grabbing his face to pull him into another kiss that would have turned his knees into jelly had he been standing up.

“You’re doing amazing,” she told him, bright eyes staring into his own with endless adoration. “I’m gathering some fascinating data right now; keep going.”

He laughed, pressing their foreheads together in wordless thanks before returning to the previously discovered sweet spot. Yes, the data he was being presented with was fascinating indeed, he mused, gently nipping at the flushed skin and receiving a yelp of mixed surprise and delight in return. The feeling of Entrapta’s body pressed so close to his own, combined with the noises she was, uh, emitting was making a strange warmth stir in his gut, prompting a strangled moan to slip out of his throat when she brought them into another kiss.

“Do you feel like conducting another experiment tonight?” she asked when they pulled apart, her skin darkened by a blush undoubtedly mirrored by his own. Something in her voice made that strange warmth flare up. “This is our wedding night, after all.”

Hordak blinked, suddenly thrown off-guard. True, what they were doing was a little more different than their regular kisses, and there were certain expectation connected to marriage consummation on Etheria, but he didn’t think they would actually go there, especially with the weathered wreck he called a body.

“Y-you want to…” he stuttered out, his eyes wide and heartrate spiking up as the blush on his face deepened. “Uh, you want to… With me?”

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Entrapta shrugged. “Truth be told, it would be my first time, so all knowledge I have about this sort of thing is purely theoretical. Oh,” her eyes lit up, “but you’re not an Etherian, so it would be different!” She grinned, wiggling a little with excitement. “It’d be such a fantastic learning opportunity for both of us! Plus,” she looked away, smile turning a little sheepish, “I do want to try this with you. If you want.”

Hordak’s ears drooped a little in surprise. He did fantasise about indulging in, er, certain activities with Entrapta not once and not twice, but it never occurred to him that it was a legitimate possibility, that Entrapta would want this. Part of it, he suspected, stemmed from his disdain for his body which, while it wasn’t as bad as it used to, still lingered at the back of his mind, while another part of it could be his still present fear that this wonderful life would be taken away from him as soon as he let down his guard and allowed himself to think that it would last forever.

No.

_No._

Not today, he told himself, kissing Entrapta with all the determination he could muster up. He would not drown in these dark thoughts, would not succumb to the void that festered deep inside him. Not today, not ever.

He had fought tooth and nail for this, walked through blood and tempest to reach this happy ending, and he would not let anyone take it away from him. They had suffered enough, struggled enough; both he and Entrapta deserved this. If anyone or anything dared to try and take it away from him, he would tear them apart with his bare claws if need be.

Entrapta’s head lolled back, eyes fluttering closed as he trailed kisses down her neck, his hands ghosting over her body, marvelling at how every inch of her being was beautiful beyond compare. Every mole. Every scar left by a failed experiment. Even the birthmark on her left hip, pale and vaguely diamond-shaped, was so beautiful that he couldn’t resist kissing it.

Beneath him, a small moan escaped Entrapta’s lips, successfully setting his mind on fire as he felt tendrils of hair meander across his skin, sending small shivers of pleasure down his spine.

“I love you,” she breathed as his lips travelled upwards once more, gently nipping at her collarbone. “Hord-ah!”

Hordak grinned against her skin, a grin which wavered as he bit his lip to suppress a moan when one of her hands, still tangled up in his hair, moved down to brush against his ear.

Now it was Entrapta’s turn to grin as she recalled Hordak telling her something about Chiropterian ears being sensitive. Propping herself up on her elbow, she raised her head enough to press butterfly kisses up her husband’s neck, finishing at the hollow behind his ear.

“There is a hypothesis I have been dying to test out for a while now,” she purred, feeling more than hearing him gasp against her. “How do you feel about it?” Saying this, she brought her lips to his earlobe and _sucked._

Oh, the little whimper Hordak made was _delicious._ Sensitive tissue, hmm? She recalled him saying something along those lines about the places where his wings joined his back. Her hair got to work immediately, twisting and caressing the delicate tissue.

This time, Hordak actually moaned, sounding like it was pulled out from the depths of his very soul. He dug his claws into the mattress, squeezing his eyes shut as a wave of pleasure crashed through his body, sending liquid fire pooling in the pit of his stomach, sinking lower.

“Good?” Entrapta’s breath was a hot purr against his ear, and all he could do was give her a small nod, biting his lip to suppress a cry when she gently dragged her teeth over his ear.

“Yes,” he managed to gasp out, panting. “Yes, I… Very good.” The heat was stirring in his loins now, making him uncomfortably aware of his hardness. Shit, he would have to do something about it soon. “Can I- ah!” he broke off as she continued to nibble at his ear. This woman would be the death of him. “Can I k-keep kissing you?” As pleasant as the experience was, Entrapta undoubtedly needed attending to, too.

Releasing him with a happy “mhm,” she allowed him to continue exploring her body, his lips tracing the path made by his hands. It felt like delving into a completely new, exciting theory, brimming with endless possibilities. So many things to learn, to catalogue and file away as “precious.” He couldn’t get enough of her.

“You have to be kidding me,” he muttered against the warmth of her thigh, frowning down at the moles decorating it.

Entrapta craned her head to see what he was looking at. “What’s wrong?”

Hordak shook his head, unable to contain a smile. “Nothing, starlight. It’s just…” he traced lines between the moles. “This reminds me of a constellation, worlds away. The _Lunerea_ – Light Bringer, goddess of the people who inhabited that part of the universe decades ago.” Of course. He didn’t know why he was surprised at the discovery; his beloved was made of the universe, like he said. He shouldn’t have expected anything different. "It suits you."

Entrapta’s breath hitched in her throat, warmth blooming in her heart as he proceeded to kiss every mole, muttering the name of each star against her skin like a worshipper whispered prayers against the altar of his deity.

_Light Bringer._ Something tugged at her memory, a thought that it sounded familiar somehow, that she had a comparison for Hordak on her mind, too, but then he continued kissing her, trailing upwards to close his lips around her nipple and her mind whited out for a second.

Entrapta knew that Hordak could be skilful with his tongue – calling the man an excellent kisser would be a hell of an understatement – but she somehow never took the time to imagine what else he could do with said tongue.

“Oooooh, wow,” she arched against him as delicate swirls sent stars shooting before her eyes. “Yeah, just like th-ah!-that. I am receiving some incredibly, mmmmmmmm, incredible stimuli.” Incredible was putting it mildly; she could feel something hot stirring between her legs, her thighs already beginning to feel slick with arousal. “Listen, not to hurry you, but I was wondering...”

Hordak looked up at her, arching an eyebrow with a smile that made her heart flip. “Hmm?”

“What else can that tongue of yours do?”

He grinned, all pointy teeth, and leaned up to press a kiss to her lips.

“Let’s find out, shall we?” he purred, trailing kisses down her body like it was something he couldn’t get enough of. (Neither could she, to be truthful.) He paused a moment to rest his cheek against the softness of her stomach with a happy sigh, eyes fluttering closed as he silently savoured the moment before continuing the journey.

At his gentle yet insisting touch, she parted her legs and _oh,_ the sight of Hordak, her Hordak, pressing a hot kiss to the inside of her thigh, his smouldering red eyes glowing slightly in the dimness of the room as he gazed at her like she was the centre of the universe might have just put her off Etherian men forever.

“Would you like me to…” he began, but was shushed by a tendril of hair whapping his mouth shut impatiently.

“Sorry,” Entrapta bit her lip, looking away in embarrassment. “I can’t control it too well when I’m, uh, absorbed in things.”

Hordak chuckled, finding it rather endearing. She felt the sound in her bones. “You have nothing to apologise for.”

“Really?”

“Mhm.”

“Oh,” pleasantly surprised, Entrapta brushed a strand of hair against Hordak’s wing, earning a delighted shudder in reward. “In that case yes, I do want you, uh, down there.”

There it was, that smile again as he whispered against the inside of her thigh: “As my Queen commands.”

And springs and sprockets, this man had _no right_ to be this good for someone who was doing this for the first time. The first touch of his tongue against her made her see stars as her head fell back on the pillow and she made a sound she never heard herself make before, not even when she was touching herself in the privacy of her bedroom. Little tingles of electricity spidered all over her body as Hordak licked into her, pointed ears twitching at her every moan, listening out for what sparked the most desirable reaction and repeating the trick until she was a twitching, writhing mess, clutching the pillow with her hands while her hair did a whole manner of things she was too aroused to pay attention to. That heat was intensifying, winding up like a coiled spring only to…

Hordak pulled away, and she couldn’t help but _whine_ at the loss of stimulation before catching herself. Of course, she couldn’t just leave him unsatisfied. What kind of lab partner would she be? Ignoring the tingling caused by the shift, she propped herself up, reaching between them.

“Let me?” she asked, resting her hand on his chest, waiting until he told her that he wanted it lower.

Hordak’s lips quivered, his skin covered in a sheen of sweat.

_“Please,”_ he mewled, and tucked his face into the crook of her neck, pressing little kisses there as she trailed her hand downwards, searching for…

“Oh, hello there,” she hummed, gently brushing her fingertips against his erection and earning a strangled moan in return. It felt different than what she knew Etherian reproductive organs were supposed to look like – were those ridges? Hmm, more investigation was in order.

Wrapping her fingers around it, she gave it a gentle, experimental stroke, feeling Hordak thrust against her, one hand flying up to her shoulder to steady himself as another moan escaped his lips.

“I love you so much,” he gasped, voice cracking towards the end. “Entrapta, starlight, my sun, moon and stars, I-ah!”

She continued to stroke him, smiling softly. Her Hordak. Her beautiful, imperfect Hordak. Her lab partner. Her husband. Her King. She still remembered their early days, back in the Fright Zone. To think that that fearsome, towering warlord was now falling apart under her touch… She couldn’t help but giggle. How far they’ve come…

“I could take you in,” she told him, brushing her thumb against the head and feeling his entire body shudder in response. “If you want.” Whether she meant inside her or just into her mouth wasn’t too relevant; they were both so aroused that either would get them both over the edge without much of an issue.

Hordak was breathing heavily against her, his wings twitching every once in a while.

“I-“ He licked his lips, trying to remember how to string words together so that they would make sense. “I think I would…” Another stroke, another moan. “Ah! Yes… Yes, I would like that.” He nodded weakly against her and pulled away, looking around the room with unfocused eyes. “Can you reach that crate over there?”

Entrapta looked at the direction he was pointing. “Huh? Sure.” Her hair was already extending towards it as she spoke. “Why?”

“Protection.”

….Oh.

She raised her eyebrows while her hair rummaged through the contents. “We’re genetically incompatible, remember?” They had tried combining their genetic material to improve the cloning process, but it didn’t hold.

“Maybe so,” Hordak accepted the packet her hair handed him, “but we have not compared the bio-chemical makeup of our, erm, parts. The pH, the bacterial flora, stuff like that.” He made a vague hand gesture, his mind too fuzzy with arousal to bring up the scientific terms. “Hence, protection.”

_Oh._

“Sounds reasonable. Did you know that we would be consummating our marriage or…?”

A shrug. “I did not know if it would be something you would be comfortable with, but I brought these just in case. A scientist should always be prepared.” He grinned at her, and Entrapta couldn’t resist grinning back.

Stars, she loved him so much.

While he was busy with the packet, she took the chance to study him in more detail – there were indeed ridges there, and the length was flushed, just like an Etherian’s. Still, there was just enough of alien otherness to send a thrilled shiver down her back. Yep, no Etherian men for her anytime soon; after all, why return to boring old models when a more advanced hardware was so readily available?

With the condom in place, Hordak leaned forward to kiss her tenderly. “According to my research, you might find the first time uncomfortable or even painful. I will do my best to be gentle, but please tell me if you wish me to stop.”

Entrapta’s heart warmed at the sentiment, at the gentleness she had expected from her only seemingly fearsome beloved, but it still made her misty-eyed. How lucky she was to have him. Giving him a nod, she lied back down, shutting her eyes and luxuriating in the experience. She knew, of course, that losing one’s virginity came with a certain degree of discomfort, but a generous amount of lubrication was supposed to help. Judging by the feel of Hordak’s tongue working its magic against her, he was doing an excellent job at taking care of that.

Just when she felt the warmth build up again, he pulled back and bowed over her, eyes half-lidded and as full of love as they were when they exchanged wedding vows. He kissed her one more time, slowly moving his hips forward until something within her gave in and she yelped, gripping his shoulder as a sudden stab of pain shot through her.

“I’m sorry,” Hordak withdrew, pressing an apologetic kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Hang on, I have an idea.”

With that, he was between her legs again, licking at her… only this time, there was a strange tingling that slowly dulled the pain until it was reduced to a faint hum.

Oh right, Entrapta remembered. Healing saliva. How handy, and thoughtful, come to think of it. She wouldn’t have thought of that, and doubted that any other partner would.

Hordak sat up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Better?” he asked, a spark of concern in his eyes.

She nodded, and pulled him close again. “Thank you.”

“Anything for you.”

The second time wasn’t as uncomfortable. Hordak moved in small, slow thrusts, sinking a little deeper with each one, careful not to bring either of them discomfort. He was so gentle, the conqueror capable of bringing all of Etheria to its knees, Entrapta mused before he got deep enough to rub something inside her and wipe all thoughts out of her head for a good minute or so.

They both moaned when Hordak seated himself fully, his forehead pressed against Entrapta’s and breathing heavily, eyes squeezed tight. His limbs were trembling and he was exercising every ounce of his self-control to keep his movements slow and steady. He could feel his climax building up, too early, and it took a moment of slow, deep breathing to allow it to settle.

“All good?” he managed to ask, voice wavering. The sheer pleasure was making spots dance on the edges of his vision.

Against him, Entrapta gave a barely perceivable nod, arms wrapped around his neck. “Mhm.”

Reassured, he began to move. Slowly at first, with long, gentle strokes, and then finding a rhythm which soon began to draw out small moans and yelps from Entrapta as she clung to him for what appeared to be dear life, her fingers digging into his back and, once in a while, brushing against the spots where his wings joined the rest of his body and sending waves of pleasure down his spine.

Things went, uh, rather quickly after that.

Entrapta clung to Hordak’s shoulders, breathless moans spilling from her lips as she felt that white-hot spring winding up again, the feeling writhing inside her about to reach its climax. It was beautiful. It was incredible, and it was all thanks to Hordak. He gave her the ship, showed her the universe like she always dreamed, and it was he who held on to her to desperately and yet so tenderly, like she was the most precious thing in existence.

And just then, she remembered. Gazing up at the endless expanse of space, Entrapta remembered what she wanted to tell him, which tale came to her mind as soon as he compared her to a goddess.

_“Linguistic note: the story of Milve and Silvah has inspired the use of “Silvah” as a term of highest affection among lovers. “Mei Silvah,” meaning “the sky to my stars” is very seldom used, reserved for lovers who consider their love as true and undying as that of the sky and the stars.”_

Bright eyes, dexterous fingers, strong arms wrapped around her, beautiful wings that made her feel safe more than anything, a disarming smile, a brilliant mind that she would never trade for anything.

_“Starlight,”_ he called her, but how could stars shine without the sky to embrace them?

“Hordak,” her voice trembled as she brought her lips to his ear. He whimpered quietly, his hold around her tightening as his rhythm wavered, his own climax building up like a taser's charge. _“Mei Silvah.”_

With a hoarse cry, Hordak came like it was being pulled out of the depths of his very soul, and she didn’t hesitate to follow.

~~~

Afterwards, they just lied there, panting. Entrapta thought that they should probably clean up, but there was no force in the Known Universe capable of making her move after what they just went through.

“That was…” she let out a breath, her hair lying limp in a violet halo around her head. “Wow.”

Lying on her chest, Hordak made a small, inarticulate noise of agreement, his breath warm against her collarbone and his wings twitching every once in a while. Stars, his entire body will be _killing_ him in the morning, painkillers or no. Still, he would be damned if he had any regrets.

“I…” he licked his lips, his brilliant brain making a valiant attempt at stringing words into a coherent sentence. “Yeah.” Aaaaand failing miserably. He hasn’t felt this wrecked since Beast Island, although this time, the experience was infinitely more pleasant. They should steal spaceships more often.

Entrapta laughed, the sound washing over him in a wave of warm tingles. He felt her fingers in his hair once again, petting in such a way that he couldn’t keep his eyes open, letting them fall shut as a soft, satisfied purr rumbled in his throat.

He _purred._

Hordak could _purr._

Entrapta thought that she would implode from the sheer euphoria this discovery brought her. This could be the biggest breakthrough of her life, she thought, trying to recall where she left her recorder but giving up when her mind refused to cooperate. She was too tired and happy to think.

“Congratulations, Lord Hordak,” she hummed, catching her husband’s attention. “You have successfully conquered me.”

He chuckled against her. “Innocent no more, eh?”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh please, like this is the first time you’ve seen me covered in blood.”

“It’s usually someone else’s,” he pointed out.

“Mhm, true.”

“Are you still sore? I could give you my painkillers.”

She shook her head. “I’m fine, the pain went away ages ago. Your hair is really fluffy, by the way.”

He snorted, leaning into the soothing touch of her fingers. “Used your conditioner by accident.”

She snorted. “You did _not.”_

“I did. It still smells like bubblegum, I think.”

“Kind of does. You can use it if you want, I don’t mind.”

Entrapta sighed, lying back and gazing up at the stars, silently basking in the afterglow. If there were any doubts about this being the happiest day of her life, they have been thoroughly obliterated with a disintegration ray and exploded. Went _zzzzzzt_ and _kaboom_ and were no more.

“I see a shooting star,” she reached up towards it, as if wishing to catch it in her hand. “Hordak, make a wish!”

Hordak laughed, shaking his head. He lifted his eyelids, gazing at her with all the love in the world. “I don’t have anything to wish for,” he confessed, “and even if I did, I don’t think I’m presently capable of recalling it now. I can barely remember my own name.”

Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration. He remembered everything, his mind having somehow catalogued every memory and sensation and filed them away to a little folder marked “Precious”, just in case he needed convincing that everything that happened to him since his system reboot was real.

“I love you, Entrapta,” he tilted his head to press a kiss to her lips. The angle was a little awkward, but he couldn’t bring himself to mind. He thought that he could get addicted to their kisses.

Entrapta smiled against him, her voice a happy hum. “I love you too, _Silvah.”_

With that, neither of them felt capable of staying awake for long. As Hordak dozed off in the arms of the woman he loved, he thought that he couldn’t possibly feel any happier. The next morning he will wake up sore all over, but he will be happy. His left arm will be numb, but he will be happy. He will be unable to get up because he will find Imp curled up between his wings, fast asleep because Emily got spooked in the middle of the night by all the strange machinery so they snuck into their bedroom, but he will be happy.

No matter what life decides to throw at him, he will face it head-on.

He was King Hordak of Dryl. This was the life he carved out for himself, and nobody could take it away from him.

_~~~  
_

_"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."_

_"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit._

_"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."_

_"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"_

_"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."_

_"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled._

_"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."_

_\- The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams_

_ **The End.** _

** _ Sketches below, mostly of Entrapta's new mask and their wedding outfits. _ **

** _ _ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that's a wrap! Thank the gods for that. I had a blast, but I'm not good with multichaps, and especially not good with smut. Hope it wasn't too long winded.
> 
> I'll be taking a break from this series to focus on other projects, but I do want to come back here - I have a couple of one-shots in the plans, as well as a little compilation of fairy tales rewritten to suit these two.
> 
> Once again, thank you so much for joining me on this ride. May season 5 be gentle with these losers.


End file.
